General: Perennial, somewhat tufted herb from elongate fibrous roots; stems dark green, 5-25 cm tall, longer than the leaves.
Leaves: Sheaths tight; blades numerous, borne on the lower part of the stem, 1.5-2 mm wide, flat.
Flowers: Spikes 3-6 in a 0.5- to 1.5-cm long, dense head, occasionally with the lowermost spike separate, egg-shaped, several-flowered, 2-3 mm long, ascending, with both female and male flowers, the female flowers towards the tips, the male flowers inconspicuous, the top spike larger than the lower ones; bracts lacking.
Fruits: Perigynia egg-shaped, 2.5-3 mm long, 0.8-1 mm wide, brownish, minutely whitish-dotted, biconvex, smooth, nerved, especially above, unstalked, the beaks 0.25 mm long, smooth, not cleft; female scales egg-shaped, covering most of the perigynia, pointed, green, with green midribs; stigmas 2; achenes lens-shaped, 1.5 mm long, filling the perigynia.
Mesic to moist streambanks, snowbeds, rocky places and fens and bogs in the subalpine and alpine zones; infrequent throughout BC in and E of the Coast-Cascade Mountains; circumpolar, N to AK, YT and NT, E to NF and S to CO and UT; Greenland, Eurasia, New Zealand.
The table below shows the species-specific information calculated from original data (BEC database) provided by the BC Ministry of Forests and Range. (Updated August, 2013)
