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

General:
Perennial, tufted herb from fibrous roots; stems 20-80 cm tall, exceeding the leaves.

Leaves:
Sheaths tight; blades flat or folded, 2-4 mm wide, borne on the lower 1/3 of the stem.

Flowers:
Spikes 3 to 6, aggregated into a 1- to 5-cm long, often interrupted head, unstalked, with both female and male flowers, the female ones towards the tips; bracts subtending the spikes sheathless, reduced, inconspicuous.

Fruits:
Perigynia broadly egg-shaped to nearly globe-shaped, 3.2-4.6 mm long, 2.2-3.5 mm wide, pale green to tan, more or less flattened, the margins winged nearly to the bases and the upper 1/2 fringed with teeth, with nerves on both sides or nerveless below, the beaks shallowly bidentate, less than 1 mm long, narrowly margined and toothed below; female scales elliptical, brownish with translucent margins, somewhat shorter and narrower than the perigynia; stigmas 2; achenes lens-shaped, 1.7-2 mm long. vol6_2