General: Perennial, loosely tufted herb from stout, creeping rhizomes; stems 10-35 cm tall, longer than the leaves.
Leaves: Sheaths tight, bladeless below; blades 4 to 9 per stem, flat or channeled, borne on the lower 1/4 of the stem, 1-3 mm wide.
Flowers: Spikes solitary, cylindrical to egg-shaped, 8-20 mm long, erect, with both female and male flowers, the male flowers towards the tips, rarely the spikes with all male or all female flowers; bractless.
Fruits: Perigynia lanceolate to egg-shaped, 3-4.5 mm long, 1-1.5 mm wide, appressed but spreading and reflexed at maturity, smooth, nerveless, long-stalked, the beaks short, bidentate; female scales lanceolate to egg-shaped, much shorter than the perigynia, deciduous, pointed to rounded, dark brown, the midribs pale, the margins thin; stigmas 3; achenes 3-angled, 1.5-2 mm long.
Moist to wet meadows, stream margins and snowbed sites in the montane to alpine zones; common in BC south of 54degreeN, less frequent northward; N to AK, E to SW AB and S to CO, UT and OR.
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)
