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

General:
Perennial herb from slender, creeping, purple-black rhizomes; stems 5-20 cm tall, longer than the leaves, arising singly or a few together.

Leaves:
Sheaths tight, blunt at the mouths; blades 4 to 8 per stem, channeled, borne near the base, 1-1.5 mm wide, the lower ones persisting.

Flowers:
Spikes solitary, linear at first, expanding below at maturity, with both female and male flowers, the upper 2/3 of the spike consisting of male flowers, the female flowers below, 5-15 mm long, 3-6 mm wide, erect; bractless.

Fruits:
Perigynia few, egg-shaped, 3-4 mm long, 1.5-2 mm wide, glossy, dark brown, obscurely to conspicuously ribbed, unstalked, the beaks translucent, 0.5-1 mm long, deeply bidentate; female scales narrowly egg-shaped, from slightly shorter than to slightly longer than the perigynia, sharp-pointed to short-awned, pale brown, the centres paler, the margins translucent; stigmas 3; achenes broadly 3-angled, 1-1.7 mm long.