Cespitose, with numerous very leafy sterile stems; fertile stems stout, 5–10 dm; main lvs 3–5 mm wide; sheaths ventrally green-veined almost to the summit; spikes 5–10, gynaecandrous, fusiform, pointed at both ends, 15–25 × 4–6 mm, closely aggregated into a dense cluster 4–8 cm; pistillate scales lanceolate, half as long as the perigynia, pale brown with hyaline margins; perigynia appressed, lanceolate, thin, 6.5–10 mm, 3–4 times as long as wide, finely nerved on both sides, gradually tapering to the flat, serrulate, deeply bidentate beak half as long as the body; achene lenticular, 2–2.5 mm, less than 1 mm wide. Low woods, wet meadows, and river-bottomlands; O. and Ky. to Mich., Minn., Man., Kans., and Okla.