Stems densely tufted, aphyllopodic, 2–7 dm, smooth; lvs 2–4 per stem, all in the basal third, usually shorter than the stems, plicate to flat, mostly 1–4 mm wide; spikes 4–8, sessile, small and few-fld, gynaecandrous or the lateral ones often wholly pistillate; anthers 1–2 mm; perigynia 5–25, crowded, widely spreading or the lower reflexed, green, planoconvex, spongy-thickened at base, 6–14-nerved dorsally, 0–6-nerved ventrally, elliptic-ovate, 2–3 × 1–2 mm, 1.2–2.1 times as long as wide, smooth-margined, with a smooth, truncate or obscurely bidentate beak 0.2–0.6 mm, to a third as long as the body; achene lenticular; 2n=48. Wet woods; s. N.H. to Ga., especially on the coastal plain, and irregularly inland to n. O., s. Ont., Mich., nw. Ind., and Tenn.