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

General:
Perennial, tufted herb from short rhizomes; stems 15-50 cm tall, short-hairy, roughened above, wine-red at the bases, equalling or longer than the leaves.

Leaves:
Sheaths tight, brownish, soft-hairy, deeply concave at the tips; ligules longer than wide; blades 2 or 3 per stem, flat, soft-hairy, the margins more or less rolled-under, borne on the lower 1/3 of the stem, 1.5-3.5 mm wide, the lower ones reduced.

Flowers:
Spikes 3 to 5, the terminal one linear, 8-16 mm long, short-stalked, with male flowers, the lower spikes 2 to 4, cylindrical, 6-12 mm long, 4-7 mm wide, with female flowers, unstalked to short-stalked, approximate to somewhat separate, erect to spreading; bracts subtending the female spikes leaflike, sheathless, as long as or longer than the inflorescence.

Fruits:
Perigynia egg-shaped to broadly egg-shaped, 2.5-3.5 mm long, 1.8-2.2 mm wide, yellowish-green, smooth, many-nerved, round-tapered to short stalks, the beaks short, cylindrical; female scales about 1/2 the length of the perigynia, egg-shaped, the lower ones long-pointed, the upper ones pointed, reddish- to brownish-yellow, the centres green, 3-nerved, the margins broad, translucent; stigmas 3; achenes 3-angled, 2-2.5 mm long.