Densely tufted, 1–5 dm; fertile stems weak, hispidulous, triangular but not winged; basal sheaths white or light brown; lvs roughened on the margins and hispidulous on the veins toward the tip, those of the sterile shoots 1–5 mm wide, of the fertile ones 1–3 mm; terminal spike staminate, 1.2–5 cm, evidently pedunculate; pistillate spikes 1–3, scattered, 0.6–2 cm, erect to drooping, on short to elongate peduncles, the lowest usually basal; pistillate scales acute; perigynia 3–9, finely many-nerved as well as 2 ribbed, 2–4 mm, obovoid and sharply trigonous, scarcely beaked; achene trigonous; 2n=48. Dry woods; Me. to Fla., w. to Wis., Ill., Mo., and e. Tex.