General: Perennial, tufted herb from fibrous roots; stems 30-80 cm tall, exceeding the leaves.
Leaves: Sheaths tight; blades flat, 2-5 mm wide, borne on the lower half of the stems but not crowded at the bases.
Flowers: Spikes 4 to 8, with both female and male flowers, the female ones towards the tips, the part with stamens often elongated, the spikes unstalked, forming a loose inflorescence with lower spikes remote; bracts subtending the spikes reduced and inconspicuous.
Fruits: Perigynia egg-shaped, 3.5-5 mm long, 1.6-2.2 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 ner
Dry to moist disturbed sites and open forests in the lowland and montane zones; common in BC in and E of the Coast-Cascade Mountains, infrequent in coastal SW BC; N to AK and YT, E. to Labr. and NF and S to MA, PA, MN, SD, MT, ID and WA.
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)
