Click on the image below to view an
expanded illustration for this species.
|
General:
Perennial, loosely tufted herb from long-creeping, scaly rhizomes; stems 2-10 cm tall, arising singly, shorter than the leaves.
Leaves:
Sheaths tight, translucent, blunt at the mouths; blades 4 to 7 per stem, crowded toward the base, flat at the base, in-rolled above, 0.7-1.5 mm wide.
Flowers:
Spikes 3 to 5, densely aggregated into a nearly globe-shaped or broadly egg-shaped, 6- to 9-mm long head, scarcely distinguishable, 0.5-0.8 mm long, unstalked, with both female and male flowers, the male flowers towards the tips; bractless.
Fruits:
Perigynia few, egg-shaped, 3.5-4 mm long, 1.2-1.5 mm wide, plano-convex, appressed, spreading at maturity, brown, smooth, shiny, faintly nerved, short-stalked, the beaks short, about 1 mm long, bidentate; female scales broadly egg-shaped, shorter than the perigynia, pointed, the upper ones round-tipped, brown, the centres lighter, the margins translucent; stigmas 2; achenes lens-shaped, yellowish-brown, smooth, 1.2-1.5 mm long.
Source: The Illustrated Flora of British Columbia
|
