General:
Perennial, tufted herb from fibrous roots; stems 30-100 cm tall, smooth, exceeding the leaves.

Leaves:
Sheaths tight; blades flat, 2-5 mm wide, borne on the lower 1/2 of the stem but not crowded at the bases.

Flowers:
Spikes 4 to 8; forming ellipsoid heads 1-4 cm long with lower spikes slightly remote, unstalked, with both female and male flowers, the female ones towards the tips, the male parts often elongated; bracts of lowest spikes often leaflike, longer than the inflorescence, expanded at the bases, with the green midribs flanked by translucent coppery margins.

Fruits:
Perigynia egg-shaped, 4-5 mm long, 2-3 mm wide, light green to straw-coloured or brownish, more or less flattened, the margins winged nearly to the bases and the upper 1/2 fringed with teeth, lightly several-nerved on both sides or with fainter nerves on the lower side, the beaks bidentate, less than 1 mm long, wing-margined and toothed below; female scales egg-shaped, brownish, with green centres, with broad translucent margins, somewhat shorter and narrower than the perigynia, short-awned; stigmas 2; achenes lens-shaped, 1.8-2.1 mm long.

Source:  The Illustrated Flora of British Columbia

If more than one illustration is available for a species (e.g., separate illustrations were provided for two subspecies) then links to the separate images will be provided below. Note that individual subspecies or varietal illustrations are not always available.

Illustration Source:  The Illustrated Flora of British Columbia