Carex torta Boott ex Tuck.

Plants densely tufted, the stout stems 2–7 dm, arising laterally; lowest lvs reduced to bladeless sheaths; main lvs 3–5 mm wide, inversely W-shaped in x-section; terminal spike staminate, 2–4 cm, pedunculate; pistillate spikes 3–6, usually approximate and much overlapping, linear-cylindric, 3–8 cm, the lower short-peduncled and curved-spreading or drooping, the upper sessile or nearly so; bracts sheathless, the lowest lf-like, usually shorter than the stem, the others much reduced; pistillate scales elliptic to oblong, obtuse, about as long as but narrower than the perigynia, with broad, greenish or stramineous midstrip and blackish or deep brown-purple sides; perigynia ovate, 2.5–4.2 mm, half as wide, 2-ribbed, otherwise nerveless, gradually tapering to a minute, bent or twisted beak; achenes lenticular, filling the lower three-fourths of the perigynium; 2n=66. Streambanks, sandbars, and shallow water; Que. and N.S. to N.C., w. to c. Ont., c. O., Tenn., and Ala.

Can be grown by cuttings or seedlings.