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

General:
Perennial, densely tufted herb from fibrous roots; stems 10-40 cm tall, longer than the leaves.

Leaves:
Sheaths pale below; blades 4 to 8 per stem, channeled, borne on the lower 1/2 of the stem, 1-3 mm wide, the lower ones reduced.

Flowers:
Spikes 3 to 7, the terminal unstalked or short-stalked, linear, 7-21 mm long, with male flowers (rarely some female flowers), the lower spikes 2 to 6, erect, cylindrical, 5-11 mm long, many-flowered, with female flowers (sometimes the upper with male flowers at the tips), unstalked or nearly so; bracts subtending the female spikes conspicuous, leaflike, 4-9 cm long, much exceeding the inflorescence, the sheaths 2-20 mm long, the upper bracts shorter.

Fruits:
Perigynia egg-shaped to elliptical, mostly spreading, 2-3.2 mm long, 1.2-1.3 mm wide, yellowish-green to green, smooth, several-nerved, the beaks shortly bidentate, about 1/3 as long as the bodies of the perigynia; female scales egg-shaped, pointed, short-awned at the tips, shorter than the perigynia, reddish, with greenish midribs and narrow translucent margins; stigmas 3; achenes 3-angled, smooth, 1.4-1.9 mm long.