General:
Perennial, tufted herb from stout, elongate, matted, shredded rhizomes; stems 30-90 cm tall, erect or decumbent, as long as or longer than the leaves.

Leaves:
Sheaths long, concave to blunt; ligules short; blades 5 to 8 per stem, flat, scattered on the stem, 2.5-4 mm wide, the lower ones reduced.

Flowers:
Spikes 3 to 7, the terminal 1 to 3 linear, 1-2 cm long, with male flowers, the lower 2 to 4 spikes cylindrical, 1-3.5 cm long, with female flowers, the spikes remote and long-stalked, spreading to nodding; bracts subtending the female spikes short-sheathing, leaflike, 1.5-2.5 cm long, shorter to longer than the subtended spikes.

Fruits:
Perigynia nearly globe-shaped, 5-6 mm long, 1.5-2 mm wide, greenish to straw-coloured, smooth, shiny, 2-ribbed near the margins and with a few obscured nerves, spreading, short-stalked, the beaks deeply bidentate, slender, as long as or longer than the body; female scales lanceolate to narrowly egg-shaped, narrower than the perigynia, the centres green and 3-nerved, the tips pointed to more usually awned; stigmas 3; achenes 3-angled, 1.8-2.5 mm long.

Source:  The Illustrated Flora of British Columbia

If more than one illustration is available for a species (e.g., separate illustrations were provided for two subspecies) then links to the separate images will be provided below. Note that individual subspecies or varietal illustrations are not always available.

Illustration Source:  The Illustrated Flora of British Columbia