General: Perennial, densely tufted herb from fibrous roots; stems 10-35 cm tall.
Leaves: Narrow, channeled, sparsely fringed with fine hairs, about 5-15 cm long, 1-2.5 mm wide, with sharp tips; sheaths brown to purplish.
Flowers: Inflorescence solitary, dense, spike-like, drooping, with 5 to 10 clusters, each cluster with 3 to 6 flowers; perianth segments brown with paler tips, 2-3 mm long, lanceolate, tapering into long awns, the inner about the same length as the outer; stamens 6; anthers 0.4-0.6 mm long, about the same length as the filaments; bracts bristlelike, reduced.
Fruits: Capsules, ellipsoid, pointed, shorter than the perianth segments; seeds egg-shaped, 0.9-1.1 mm long, with minute appendages.
Dry rocky slopes in the subalpine and alpine zones; frequent throughout BC; circumpolar, N to AK, YT and NT, disjunct E to MB, PQ and NF and S to ME, NH, VT, NY, NM, AZ and CA; Eurasia, Greenland.
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)