Plants cespitose; rhizomes appearing elongate in old clumps. Culms uniformly slender, 40–80 cm; vegetative culms few, inconspicuous, usually fewer than 15 leaves, not strikingly 3-ranked. Leaves: sheaths adaxially conspicuously green-veined nearly to collar, narrow hyaline band or sharp Y-shaped region at collar, adaxially firm, summits U-shaped; distal ligules 1.6–3.3 mm; blades 2–5 per fertile culm, 12–18 cm × 1.5–2.5 mm. Inflorescences stiffly erect, dense to slightly open, brown, 1.5–3(–3.5) cm × 6–14 mm; proximal internode 2–12 mm; 2d internode 2–7 mm; proximal bracts scalelike, often with bristletips shorter than or equaling inflorescences. Spikes 2–5, distant, distinct, ovoid, 7–12 × 4–7 mm, base rounded or short-acute, apex acute. Pistillate scales reddish brown, 1-veined midstripe sometimes pale, broadly lanceolate, 2.7–3.6 mm, shorter and narrower than perigynia, apex firm, acute to acuminate. Perigynia 15–80 in larger spikes, appressed, usually golden brown, conspicuously 6–9-veined abaxially, inconspicuously veined adaxially, diamond shaped, flat except over achene, 4–5 × 2–2.8 mm, 0.4–0.5 mm thick, base subacute or acute, margin flat, including wing 0.6–0.9 mm wide, smooth; beak apprressed, golden brown at tip, flat, 0.7–1.6(–1.8) mm, 2/5+ length of body, ciliate-serrulate, abaxial suture with hyaline, golden brown margin, distance from beak tip to achene 2–3 mm. Achenes elliptic to ovate, 1.5–1.7 × 0.8–1.1 mm, 0.3–0.4 mm thick. 2n = 72.
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Tufted, aphyllopodic, 3–7 dm; main lvs 2–3 mm wide, shorter or longer than the stem, their sheaths ventrally green-veined almost to the summit, with only a short hyaline area; spikes 2–5, gynaecandrous, ovoid, 7–12 mm, sessile, distinct but closely aggregated into an ovoid or short-oblong infl; pistillate scales shorter and narrower than the perigynia, yellowish-brown with pale midnerve and narrow hyaline margins, acute to cuspidate; perigynia numerous, appressed, prominently distended over the achene, 3.9–5.1 × 2.1–2.6 mm, 1.8–2.4 times as long as wide, broadest at a third to two-fifths their length, the broad body straight-tapered to the base, faintly nerved dorsally, nerveless or nearly so ventrally, abruptly contracted to the flat, serrulate beak; achene lenticular, 1.5 × 1 mm. Swamps and moist or wet meadows and shores, calciphile; s. Ont. to w. Va., s. Minn., and Mo.
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