General:
Perennial or annual, sweet-scented herb from long, slender, scaly rhizomes, terminating in small tubers up to 15 mm wide; stems solitary, stout, sharply triangular, 10-70 cm tall.

Leaves:
Clustered at the bases; blades elongate, mostly 3-8 mm wide, shorter than to exceeding the stem.

Flowers:
Inflorescence of dense, more or less elongate, head-like clusters with more or less elongate stalks, the terminal clusters unstalked, the others borne singly or in small groups at the ends of rays up to 7 cm long, each cluster with 5 to 16 spikes, the spikes 0.5-5 cm long, the spikelets 6- to 22-flowered, 1-2.5 cm long, linear to egg-shaped, ascending to spreading; stamens 3; involucral bracts 2 to 9, elongate, unequal, sometimes a little wider than the leaves, usually several surpassing the inflorescence.

Fruits:
Scales several-nerved, the lowest ones shorter, broad, much overlapping laterally, but not closely set, mostly (2) 2.5-3 (4) mm long, the tips surpassing the ones below them by 1.1-1.7 mm, not recurved; rachillas broadly and translucently winged, persistent, the scales falling from them at maturity; achenes unequally 3-angled, 1.3-2 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:
Cyperus esculentus var. angustispicatus Britton