Plants not cespitose. Culms obtusely or acutely angled, 10–50 cm, glabrous. Leaves: basal sheaths brown; sheaths of proximal leaves glabrous, fronts lacking spots and veins, apex U-shaped; blades usually amphistomic, 2–4 mm wide, papillose or smooth. Proximal bract equal to or longer than inflorescence, 1.5–3.5 mm wide. Spikes erect; staminate 1–2; pistillate 1–4; proximal pistillate spike 1.6–2.4 cm × 4–7 mm, base cuneate or attenuate. Pistillate scales dark purple-brown; 2–5.5 × 1.2–1.8 mm (including awn), narrower than perigynia, midvein reaching apex or not, 1/10–1/2 the width of scale, apex acute to acuminate, rarely aristate, awn glabrous or scabrous. Perigynia ascending, pale brown, obscurely veined or with a few prominent veins on each face, somewhat inflated, loosely enclosing achenes, ovoid to ellipsoid, 2.7–3.5 × 1.6–2.4 mm, leathery, dull, base rounded, apex acute, glabrous; beak widely conic and almost continuing body of perigynium, 0.1–0.2(–0.3) × 0.30–0.45 mm, entire. Achenes entire or strongly constricted on 1 face, or irregularly constricted on margins, apex truncate to retuse, dull; style base straight, sometimes bent. 2n = 80 (ne Russia).