E-Flora BC: Electronic Atlas of the Flora of British Columbia

General:
Perennial, tufted herb from short rhizomes and fibrous roots; stems 15-40 cm tall, exceeding the leaves.

Leaves:
Sheaths purplish-red to brownish towards the bases; blades flat with rolled-under margins, 2-4 mm wide, the lower ones not reduced.

Flowers:
Spikes 2 to 5, the terminal one with both female and male flowers, the female flowers at the top, the male ones below, the lower spikes 1 to 3, with female flowers, short-stalked, 0.5-1 cm long, clustered together in heads; bracts subtending the spikes sheathless, bristlelike to scalelike, mostly shorter than the inflorescence.

Fruits:
Perigynia egg-shaped to elliptical, 2.5-3 mm long, 1.5-1.8 mm wide, green, brown to dark brown, nerveless or few-nerved, the beaks obscure, less than 0.3 mm long; female scales lanceolate, shorter and slightly narrower than the perigynia, pointed at the tips, brown to purplish-black, with light brown margins; stigmas 3; achenes 3-angled, 1.5 mm long.

Notes:
Western taxonomists have usually included this taxon with C. norvegica Retz., a species of eastern N. America and the southern Rocky Mountains (Murray 1969).