General: Perennial, tufted herb from fibrous roots; stems 20-70 cm tall, exceeding the leaves.
Leaves: Sheaths tight; blades flat, 1.5-2.5 mm wide, borne on the lower 1/3 of the stem.
Flowers: Spikes 4 to 10 in a long, loose inflorescence, 2.5-5 cm long, unstalked, with both female and male flowers, the female ones towards the tips; bracts subtending the spikes sheathless, reduced, inconspicuous.
Fruits: Perigynia lanceolate or narrowly egg-shaped, 3-4.5 mm long, 1.5-1.8 mm wide, light green to straw-coloured or brownish, more or less flattened, the margins winged nearly to the bases, the upper 1/2 fringed with teeth, strongly nerved on both sides, the beaks shallowly bidentate, about 1 mm long, narrowly margined and toothed below; female scales egg-shaped, brownish with green centres and translucent margins, somewhat shorter and narrower than the perigynia, short-awned; stigmas 2; achenes lens-shaped, 1.2-1.4 mm long.
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.
Mesic to dry meadows, shorelines and open forests in the steppe and montane zones; rare throughout BC east of the Coast-Cascade Mountains; E to PQ, NB and NS and S to ME, MA, NC, GA, AL, AR, NE, and NM.
