General: Perennial, tufted herb from short-creeping rhizomes; stems 30-100 cm tall, triangular, rough below the inflorescence, longer than the leaves.
Leaves: Sheaths tight, the basal ones shattered and forming feather-like patterns; ligules longer than wide; blades 4 to 8 per stem, flat, cross-walled, the margins rolled-under, borne on the lower portion of the stem, 3-7 mm wide, the lower ones reduced, persistent.
Flowers: Spikes 4 to 7, the terminal 2 or 3 linear, 1.5-5 cm long, long-stalked, with many male flowers and occasionally with a few female flowers, the lower spikes 2 to 4, cylindrical, 2.5-7.5 cm long, with female flowers or some with male flowers above the female flowers, short-stalked, erect to spreading; bracts subtending the lowest spike leaflike, sheathless, longer than the inflorescence.
Fruits: Perigynia egg-shaped, 7-10 mm long, 1.5-3 mm wide, yellowish-green to reddish-brown, somewhat inflated, smooth, shiny, strongly nerved, abruptly contracted from the broad bases to beaks, the beaks 1.5-3 mm long, bidentate, with straight teeth; female scales lanceolate to egg-shaped, pointed or with short awns, narrower and shorter than the perigynia, yellowish- to reddish-brown, with lighter centres and narrow, translucent margins; stigmas 3; achenes 3-angled, 1.9-2.3 mm long.
Notes: The distribution and taxonomy of this species in BC is poorly known.
Fens, swamps, marshes, shorelines and wet meadows in the steppe and montane zones; frequent in S BC E of the Coast-Cascade Mountains, less frequent northward; E to NF and S to ME, MA, VA, MO, SD, NM, AZ and CA; Eurasia.
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)
