General:
Perennial, tufted herb from short-creeping rhizomes; stems 15-100 cm tall, triangular, smooth, shorter than the leaves.

Leaves:
Sheaths tight; ligules longer than wide; blades 4 to 8 per stem, flat, with whitish cross-walls, borne on the lower 1/2 of the stem, 3-10 mm wide, flat, 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, the lower 2 to 4 spikes cylindrical, 2.5-7.5 cm long, with female flowers, or some with male flowers above the female flowers, short-stalked, usually clustered together; bracts subtending the lowest spikes leaflike, sheathless, much longer than the inflorescence.

Fruits:
Perigynia elliptical, mostly reflexed, 7-10 mm long, 1.7-3 mm wide, yellowish-green to reddish-brown, somewhat inflated, smooth, shiny, strongly nerved, contracted into long beaks, the beaks 2-3.5 mm long, bidentate, with straight teeth; female scales lanceolate to egg-shaped, pointed, much narrower and shorter than the perigynia, yellowish- to reddish-brown, with 3-nerved, lighter greenish centres and narrow, translucent margins; stigmas 3; achenes 3-angled, 1.7-2.1 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