Tufted, 3–9 dm, purplish at base; main lvs 4–8 mm wide, hairy beneath; sheaths hairy; terminal spike peduncled, with distal perigynia; pistillate spikes 2 or 3, the upper 2 often approximate, cylindric, 2–4 cm × 6 mm, erect or spreading or even nodding, short-peduncled; bracts all sheathing; pistillate scales white or hyaline with green center, oblong or ovate-oblong, shorter to somewhat longer than the perigynia, narrowed into a prominent awn; perigynia dull orange at maturity (unlike related spp.), ovoid, 4.5–6 mm, half as wide, obscurely trigonous, sharply several-nerved, acuminately tapering into a sharply bidentate beak 0.7 mm; achene concavely trigonous. Woods; Mass., Vt. and s. Ont. to Mich. and Minn., s. to Md., Nebr., and Tex., abundant in the Middle West.
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