E-Flora BC: Electronic Atlas of the Flora of British Columbia

General:
Perennial herb from long rhizomes; stems nearly round in cross-section, tapered, smooth, easily crushed between the fingers, 50-200 cm tall or more.

Leaves:
All near the base of the stems, few, to about 1/2 the length of the stems; sheaths brown to straw-coloured or mottled brownish, reddish near the base; blades usually lacking or 1 or 2, if present, C-shaped to flattened top to bottom, much shorter than the sheaths, the margins often minutely rough.

Flowers:
Spikes several to numerous, terminal, reddish-brown, 5-12 mm long, in unstalked clusters in a branching inflorescence, or some of them borne singly in compound, compact to open clusters, the branches of the inflorescence lax, sometimes drooping; involucral bracts solitary, rarely more, erect, reduced, not leaflike, thickly C-shaped to nearly circular in cross-section, tapered, with sometimes minutely rough margins, to as much as 7 cm long, appearing like an extension of the stem.

Fruits:
Scales brown to purplish-brown, with numerous, short, red-brown linear marks, (2) 2.5-3 (3.5) mm long, smooth, egg-shaped, the margins entire to somewhat irregular or jagged or short-fringed and short-awned; perianth bristles 6, brown, about equalling to surpassing the achenes; achenes plano-convex, mostly 2-2.3 mm long, not completely concealed by the scales at maturity, abruptly sharp-pointed.