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

General:
Perennial, loosely tufted herb from slender, scaly rhizomes; stems 5-15 (20) cm tall, usually much longer than the leaves.

Leaves:
Sheaths light brown, the lower ones bladeless and thread-like; blades 5 to 9 per stem, flat, the margins rolled-under, gradually tapering to the tips, 1-3 mm wide.

Flowers:
Spikes 3 or 4, the terminal one lanceolate, 3-7 mm long, with male flowers, the lower 2 or 3 spikes shortly cylindrical, 4-8 mm long, unstalked or short-stalked, with female flowers, erect; bracts subtending the female spikes reduced to bladeless sheaths, 1 cm long or less.

Fruits:
Perigynia broadly egg-shaped, 3-3.5 mm long, 1-1.3 mm wide, pale greenish or straw-coloured, 3-angled, stiff-hairy, 2-ribbed and several-nerved, 5 to 12, crowded, erect, short-stalked, the beaks 0.3-0.7 mm long, bidentate; female scales broadly egg-shaped, brown, with translucent margins, much shorter than the perigynia; stigmas 3; achenes 3-angled, 1.4-2 mm long.