General:
Perennial herb from long, creeping rhizomes; stems 5-30 cm tall, arising singly, longer than the leaves.

Leaves:
Sheaths green, the lower ones bladeless, persisting, darkened; blades 3 to 5 per stem, crowded toward the base, flat or channeled at the base, the margins sometimes in-rolled and roughened, 1-3 mm wide.

Flowers:
Spikes 6 to 15, clustered into an egg-shaped, 1.5- to 2.5-cm long head, indistinguishable, 1-1.2 cm long, unstalked, with both female and male flowers (rarely all female flowers), the few male flowers towards the tips; bracts of the spikes inconspicuous and much like the scales.

Fruits:
Perigynia egg-shaped, 3-4.5 mm long, 1.5-2 mm wide, appressed to ascending, yellowish-brown or brownish-black, biconvex, smooth, few to several nerved below, short-stalked, the beaks bidentate, finely-toothed, about 1 mm long; female scales egg-shaped, as long as and slightly wider than the perigynia, awn-tipped, light to dark brown, the margins translucent; stigmas 2; achenes lens-shaped, smooth, 1.7-2 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 arenicola F. Schmidt
Carex arenicola subsp. pansa (L.H. Bailey) T. Koyama & Calder