General: Perennial, loosely tufted herb with elongated stolons; stems 20-40 cm tall, about as long as the leaves or longer.
Leaves: Sheaths tight; blades numerous, borne on the lower part of the stem, 1-2.5 mm wide, flat.
Flowers: Spikes 2 to 5, widely separated on the top of the stem in a 3- to 5-cm long, narrow, interrupted head, occasionally with a few spikes separate below, egg-shaped, many-flowered, 5-8 mm long, ascending, with both female and male flowers, the female flowers towards the tips, the male flowers inconspicuous; lowermost bract awnlike, about 0.5-1 cm long; upper bracts reduced.
Fruits: Perigynia narrowly elliptical, 2.5-3 mm long, 0.6-0.8 mm wide, pale green, dark green or brownish, minutely whitish-dotted, biconvex, smooth, finely nerved, unstalked, beakless; female scales egg-shaped, covering about 1/2 of the perigynia, pointed, whitish-green, with green midribs; stigmas 2; achenes lens-shaped, 1.2-1.7 mm long.
Marshes, streambanks, fens and wet forests in the montane zone; infrequent in BC north of 51degreeN; circumpolar, N to AK, YT, and NT and E to ON; Eurasia.
The table below shows the species-specific information calculated from original data (BEC database) provided by the BC Ministry of Forests and Range. (Updated August, 2013)
