Much like no. 178 [Carex limosa L.]; stems rarely over 3 dm, smooth, obtusely triangular; staminate spike 6–15 mm, short-peduncled; pistillate spikes 6–16 mm, with to 10 perigynia, on peduncles of their own length, separated by internodes to 15 mm; lowest bract to 2 cm; pistillate scales dark purple, usually concealing the perigynia and partly enclosing them at base; perigynia 2.8–3.9 mm, more than half as thick as wide, acutish but beakless; 2n=52. Circumboreal, s. in our range to cold bogs in N.B. and on Mt. Katahdin, Me.