General:
Perennial, tufted herb from slender, creeping rhizomes; stems 30-80 cm tall, exceeding the leaves.

Leaves:
Sheaths purplish-red towards the bases; blades flat, 2-4 mm wide, the lower ones reduced, the old sheaths breaking in a feather-like pattern.

Flowers:
Spikes usually 2 to 5, the terminal spikes with both female and male flowers, the female ones towards the tips, the lower spikes 1 to 4, with female flowers, short-stalked, 0.6-3 cm long, erect; bracts subtending the spikes short-sheathing, leaflike, about equalling the inflorescence.

Fruits:
Perigynia elliptical, 3-4 mm long, 1.5-2 mm wide, bluish-green, finely nerved, the beaks obscure, less than 0.3 mm long; female scales lanceolate, nearly as long as to longer and narrower than the perigynia, awn-tipped, reddish-black, roughly pimpled; stigmas 3; achenes 3-angled, granular, 1.5-1.7 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

Synonyms and Alternate Names:
Carex adelostoma Krecz.