Plants colonial. Culms usually curved, bluntly trigonous, 1–25(–44) cm smooth-angled distally. Leaves: basal sheaths brown to dark brown; ligules 0.3–1.2 mm; blades involute, usually ± equaling culms, 0.5–2 mm wide. Inflorescences 0.5–1.6(–2) cm; spikes ca. (1–)3–7, essentially indistinguishable in dense ovoid to hemispheric head. Pistillate scales pale brown to dark brown, usually with broad whitish hyaline margins, broadly ovate to nearly orbicular, shorter than perigynia, apex obtuse to acute, body shiny, ± translucent. Anthers 1.1–2 mm. Perigynia pale yellowish brown proximally, darker brown on beak and distally, essentially veinless to finely 3–12-veined abaxially, essentially veinless adaxially, ± inflated, ovate to broadly ovate, (3–)3.2–5.1 × (1.4–)1.6–2.3(–2.7) mm, papery or leathery, dull to satiny; stipe 0.2–0.7 mm; beak 0.5–1 mm, scabrous-margined or, occasionally, smooth.
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