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Cespitose; stems slender but stiff and wiry, 2–10 dm, usually much surpassing the lvs; lvs flat but thick, 2–5 mm wide; infl ovoid to cylindric, 2–4 cm; spikes androgynous, ovoid or subglobose, 5–8 mm, densely aggregated but still easily distinguishable, the lower often separated but still overlapping; scales greenish, ovate, acute to acuminate or cuspidate; perigynia 8–20, greenish, 3–4 mm, broadly ovate, planoconvex, half to three-fourths as wide as long and the body often suborbicular, strongly 5–11-nerved dorsally, abruptly narrowed into a rough-margined beak a fourth to a third as long as the body. Dry, sterile or sandy soil, usually in full sun; Me. to Minn., s. to Fla., Nebr., and Tex. Two vars.
