General: Perennial herb from stout, creeping, scaly, fibre-covered rhizomes; stems 30-80 cm tall, arising singly or a few together, longer than the leaves.
Leaves: Sheaths tight, green-lined on the outside towards the bases; blades 2 to 4 per stem, widely separated, 2.5-5 mm wide, the lower ones reduced to scales.
Flowers: Spikes 20 or more, densely aggregated into a more or less cylindrical, 2- to 5-cm long head, the spikes only distinguishable below, broadly egg-shaped, 6-9 mm long, unstalked, with both female and male flowers, the male flowers towards the tips; bracts broadly egg-shaped, translucent, the lowest ones with prolonged tips, sometimes as long as the inflorescence.
Fruits: Perigynia, broadly lanceolate to egg-shaped, 2.3-4 mm long, 1.5-1.9 mm wide, plano-convex, appressed, straw-coloured or light brown, smooth, finely several-nerved, finely-toothed, the beaks short, dorsally cleft, about 1/4 the length of the bodies or less; female scales broadly egg-shaped, slightly shorter and narrower than the perigynia, pointed, reddish-brown, the midribs green, the margins translucent; stigmas 2; achenes lens-shaped, smooth, 1.2-2 mm long.
Marshes, fens, wet (often alkaline) meadows and moist open forests in the steppe and montane zones; infrequent in SC and SE BC; N to NT, E to PQ and S to NY, OH, IN, IL, MO, KS, CO and WA.
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)
