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

General:
Perennial, tufted herb from fibrous roots; stems 10-35 cm tall, exceeding the leaves.

Leaves:
Sheaths tight; blades flat, 1-3 mm wide, borne on the lower 1/3 of the stem, the lowermost stem leaves reduced to scales.

Flowers:
Spikes 3 to 5, aggregated into a dense 0.5- to 1.5-cm long ellipsoid head, unstalked, with both female and male flowers, the female ones towards the tips; bracts subtending the spikes sheathless, reduced, inconspicuous.

Fruits:
Perigynia narrowly egg-shaped, 2.5-3.5 mm long, 1.3-1.5 mm wide, brownish to dark brown, more or less flattened, the margins with narrow wings, lightly several-nerved on the backs, with faint nerves or nerveless below, the beaks shallowly bidentate, about 1.5 mm long, narrowly margined, sometimes toothed; female scales elliptical, dark brown, somewhat shorter and narrower than the perigynia, margins smooth; stigmas 2; achenes lens-shaped, 1.2-1.5 mm long.