Click on the image below to view an
expanded illustration for this species.
|
General:
Perennial, loosely tufted herb from short, spreading rhizomes; stems 4-20 cm tall, sharply triangular, roughened, clustered, longer than the leaves.
Leaves:
Sheaths tight, brownish; blades 4 to 8, flat or more or less channeled, borne on the lower 1/3 of the stem, 0.5-1.8 mm wide, the lower ones reduced.
Flowers:
Spikes 2 to 4, the terminal one linear, 10-13 mm long, stalked, with male flowers, the lower spikes 1 to 3, egg-shaped, few-flowered, with female flowers, unstalked to short-stalked, erect to spreading; bracts subtending the female spikes scalelike, awned, sheathless, slightly longer to slightly shorter than the spikes, the lowest one with conspicuous, translucent, ear-shaped lobes.
Fruits:
Perigynia elliptical to egg-shaped, 2.5-3.5 mm long, 1.4-1.8 mm wide, yellowish-green to brown, smooth, shiny, with 2 prominent marginal nerves, short-stalked, the beaks short, obliquely cut, 0.4-0.8 mm long; female scales broadly egg-shaped, pointed or sometimes shortly awned, shorter than the perigynia, chestnut-brown, with lighter midribs and translucent margins; stigmas 3; achenes 3-angled, smooth, 1-1.6 mm long.
Source: The Illustrated Flora of British Columbia
|
