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

General:
Perennial, tufted herb from fibrous roots; stems 20-60 cm tall, exceeding the leaves.

Leaves:
Sheaths tight, brownish to straw-coloured; blades flat, 1-4 mm wide, borne on the lower 1/3 of the stems.

Flowers:
Spikes 4 to 7, 4-10 mm long, erect to ascending, with both female and male flowers, the female ones towards the tips; bracts subtending the female spikes tubular-sheathing, leaflike, the lower bracts longer than the spikes and their stalks, the upper one reduced.

Fruits:
Perigynia lanceolate to egg-shaped, 2-3.3 mm long, 1-1.5 mm wide, green to greenish-brown, convex, smooth or fringed above with teeth, 2-nerved marginally, short-stalked, the beaks 0.3-0.6 mm long, entire; female scales egg-shaped, rounded to pointed, brownish, with green centres, with translucent margins, shorter but often wider than the perigynia; stigmas 3; achenes lens-shaped, 1.2-1.5 mm long.

Notes:
This species is closely related to C. capillaris and is sometimes either merged with the latter (Welsh 1974, Taylor 1983) or treated at the subspecific level (Scoggan 1978, Cody 1996).