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

General:
Perennial, tufted herb from fibrous roots; stems triangular, with blunt edges, 20-50 cm tall, exceeding the leaves.

Leaves:
Sheaths tight; blades flat, 2-4 mm wide, borne on the lower 1/3 of the stem.

Flowers:
Spikes 4 to 12, aggregated into a dense head, 1-2.5 cm wide, unstalked, with both female and male flowers, the female ones towards the tips; bracts subtending the spikes sheathless, reduced, inconspicuous.

Fruits:
Perigynia egg-shaped, 3-4 mm long, 1-1.5 mm wide, dark green to dark brown, the margins winged nearly to the bases, the upper 1/2 fringed with teeth, lightly several-nerved on the back, with faint nerves or nerveless below, the beaks shallowly bidentate, up to 1 mm long, narrowly margined and toothed below; female scales elliptical, chestnut-brown to dark brown, with slightly lighter midribs, somewhat shorter and narrower than the perigynia; stigmas 2; achenes lens-shaped, 1.1-1.5 mm long.