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

General:
Perennial, tufted herb from short or long rhizomes, the roots yellowish-woolly; stems 10-80 cm tall, longer than the leaves, reddish-brown at the bases.

Leaves:
Sheaths thin, red-dotted below; ligules conspicuous; blades 3 to 9 per stem, flat, with slightly rolled-under margins, borne on the lower 1/2 of the stem, 2-4 mm wide, the lower ones reduced.

Flowers:
Spikes 3 to 5, the terminal one linear, 4-12 mm long, long-stalked, with male flowers, the lower spikes 2 to 4, with female flowers or sometimes with a few male flowers below, cylindrical, 4-22 mm long, 4-8 mm wide, separate, long-stalked, nodding; bracts subtending the lowest spike leaflike, 2-10 cm long, sheathless or short-sheathing, longer than the inflorescence, the others reduced.

Fruits:
Perigynia broadly egg-shaped to broadly elliptical, 2.5-3.5 mm long, 1.3-1.8 mm wide, pale green, somewhat compressed, densely pimpled, conspicuously few-nerved, short-stalked, beakless or short-beaked, the beaks 0.5-1 mm long; female scales lanceolate to narrowly egg-shaped, long-pointed or sometimes short-awned, usually longer and narrower than the perigynia, light to dark brown, with lighter, green centres and brown margins; stigmas 3; achenes 3-angled, stalked, smooth, 1.4-1.9 mm long.