Plants with short rhizomes, loosely cespitose. Culms dark maroon at base; flowering stems 40–90 cm, much longer than leaves at maturity, 0.5–1 mm thick, sparingly pilose. Leaves: basal sheaths maroon, bladeless, pilose; others grading from maroon to green on back, pale to chestnut brown-hyaline and usually red dotted on front, ciliate at apex; blades flat, 2.5–9 mm wide, pilose on both surfaces, sparsely so adaxially, margins smooth or ciliate. Inflorescences: peduncles of lateral spikes capillary, 10–20 mm, glabrous or pubescent; peduncle of terminal spike erect, 3–5 mm; proximal bracts hyaline, reduced to green awn or less often leaflike and 0.3–1.5 mm wide; sheaths usually less than 3 mm (to 10 mm). Lateral spikes 2–4, 1 per node, mostly near apex but not crowded, drooping at maturity, pistillate with 10–40 perigynia attached 1 mm apart, narrowly cylindric, 8–25 × 4–5 mm. Terminal spike staminate, sessile or pedunculate, 10–30 × 1.4–3 (4) mm. Pistillate scales hyaline suffused with chestnut with broad green midrib, ovate, shorter to nearly as long as mature perigynia, apex acute to cuspidate, awns less than 1 mm, often ciliate distally. Perigynia light green, usually red dotted, 2-ribbed and 5–7-veined, at least proximally and abaxially, loosely enveloping achene, ellipsoid, 2.5–5 × 1.3–2.5 mm, membranous, base acute, apex tapering to beak, glabrous; beak bidentate to 1.5 mm, teeth 0.5 mm, ciliate between apical teeth. Achenes substipitate, 1.5–2 × 1–1.5 mm. 2n = 44, 64.
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