Plants densely cespitose; rhizomes short. Culms erect, slender, 15–80 cm, very rough distally. Leaves: sheaths pale to gray-brown abaxially, inner band thin, hyaline, conspicuously purplish dotted, concave at summit; ligules acute, longer than wide; blades pale to gray-green, flat, 15–50 cm × 2–4 mm, shorter than to exceeding culms. Inflorescences erect, ovoid-oblong, 1.5–4 cm × 7–12 mm; proximal bracts (sometimes also 2d) bristlelike-prolonged, from short to clearly exceeding spikes, distal bracts usually scalelike. Spikes 5–15, gynecandrous, proximal often slightly separate, distal closely approximate (sometimes hardly recognizable), containing 10–20 perigynia, sessile, oblong, 5–10 × 4–6 mm. Pistillate scales hyaline with green center, often brown tinged, ovate, shorter than perigynia, apex obtuse to short-cuspidate. Perigynia spreading-ascending, greenish, often brown in age, several-veined, ovate, widest near base, 2–3(–3.5) × 1.25–1.5 mm, minutely papillose (membranous); beak abaxial suture conspicuous, 0.75–1.25 mm, margin serrulate. Achenes pale brown, ovate, 1.25–1.5 1 mm, dull to slightly glossy. 2n = 60.
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Stems densely tufted, (1–)3–6 dm, sharply triangular, scabrous on the angles above; lvs all on the lower part of the stem but not closely tufted, ± flat, 1.5–4 mm wide, elongate, often surpassing the stems; spikes 7–15, gynaecandrous, sessile, 5–10 mm, all ± closely aggregated into a pale greenish to brownish-green, narrowly ovoid to cylindric head 1.5–4 cm; bracts short and inconspicuous, or the lowest ones setaceous and to 5 cm; perigynia (20–)25–40, ± strongly spreading, planoconvex, somewhat spongy at base, ovate or lance-ovate, 2.2–3.4 mm, several-nerved dorsally, few-nerved or nerveless ventrally, with a prominent, serrulate-margined beak 0.6–1.2 mm; achene lenticular; 2n=60. Streambanks, meadows, and other wet places; Que. to s. Yukon, s. to N.Y., Mich., Minn., and Calif.
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