General: Perennial herb from slender, creeping rhizomes; stems 5-60 cm tall, arising singly or a few together, shorter or longer than the leaves.
Leaves: Sheaths smooth, thin, some lower ones persisting; blades 6 to 12 per stem, bluish-green, channeled, borne on the lower 1/3 of the stem, 0.5-3.5 mm wide.
Flowers: Spikes 2 to 4, the terminal one linear, 1-2.5 cm long, with male flowers, the lower spikes 1 to 3, cylindrical, with female flowers, the lower more or less remote and long-stalked, the upper unstalked or short-stalked, erect; bracts subtending the lowest female spikes sheathing, leaflike, sometimes exceeding the inflorescence, the upper bracts awnlike.
Fruits: Perigynia egg-shaped, 3.5-4.5 mm long, 1.5-2 mm wide, light green or whitish, densely pimpled, with 2 marginal nerves, numerous, crowded, spreading, short-stalked, tapering to the tips, beakless; female scales egg-shaped, equalling or slightly shorter than the perigynia, purplish-brown, the centres pale green, the margins wide, translucent, the tips round; stigmas 3; achenes 3-angled, 2-2.5 mm long.
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)
Bogs, fens, swamps and moist to wet open forests in the lowland and montane zones; common along the coast, less frequent in E BC (Rocky Mountains); disjunct circumpolar, N to AK, YT and NT, E to NF and S to MA, NY, MI, WI, MN, CO, ID and OR; Iceland, N Europe and E Asia.
