General:
Perennial, tufted herb from fibrous roots; stems 5-50 cm tall, decumbent, barely exceeding the leaves, often nodding.

Leaves:
Sheaths tight; blades flat, 1.5-4 mm wide, borne on the lower 1/3 of the stem.

Flowers:
Spikes 5 to 15, aggregated into a 1- to 3-cm long ellipsoid head, unstalked, with both female and male flowers, the female ones towards the tips; bracts subtending the spikes sheathless, the lowermost much-prolonged, 2-15 cm long, the others slightly shorter.

Fruits:
Perigynia narrowly lanceolate, 4.5-6 mm long, 0.9-1.2 mm wide, light green to straw-coloured or brownish, more or less flattened, the margins very narrowly winged nearly to the bases and the upper 1/2 fringed with teeth, lightly several-nerved on both sides or nerveless below, the beaks bidentate, 2.5-4 mm long, narrowly margined and toothed below; female scales lanceolate, brownish, with green centres and translucent margins, somewhat shorter and narrower than the perigynia, short-awned; stigmas 2; achenes lens-shaped, 1.1-1.3 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