Stems to 1 m, forming large clumps; terminal spike staminate, 1.2–2.5 cm, peduncled and often exserted beyond the perigynia; pistillate spikes 2–5, usually strongly separate, erect, subglobose, 1.5–3 cm long and wide, the lowest peduncles elongate, the upper shorter; bracts lf-like, 4–8 mm wide, surpassing the stems, their sheaths prolonged at the mouth into a rounded or truncate lobe; pistillate scales ovate, much shorter than the perigynia, hyaline or brown-tinged with green midstrip, the body acute or acuminate; perigynia slenderly subulate, 10–15 × 2–3 mm, nearly circular in cross-section, sharply many-nerved, long-attenuate into a stout beak with erect teeth; achene loosely enveloped, concavely trigonous, continuous with the persistent slender style. Wet or swampy woods; Nf. and Que. to Wis., s. to Fla. and La. Var. folliculata, a northern form occurring s. to s. Del., W.Va., and Ind., has the main lvs 6–16 mm wide, the pistillate scales usually rough-awned, the whole scale from two thirds as long to slightly longer than the perigynium, the pistillate spikes occasionally with a few distal staminate fls. Var. australis L. H. Bailey, of the coastal plain from s. Md. to Fla. and La., has the main lvs 4–10 mm wide, the pistillate scales usually long-acuminate, seldom awned, about half as long as the perigynia, the pistillate spikes frequently staminate at the tip; it is perhaps better treated as a distinct species, C. lonchocarpa Mack.
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