Plants perennial from short rootstocks; culms 30-60 cm. long, the base bulb-ous; leaves numerous, 4-12 mm. wide; bracts 4-10, long and leaf-like; inflorescence compound, the spikelets on long spreading rays, few or numerous, 1-2 cm. long, 10-to 24-flowered, greenish; scales truncate, with an incurving mucro; achene obovate, 1.5 mm. long, trigonous with concave sides, dark lucid brown, smooth.
A sedge. These grow in clumps and have grass like leaves and solid stalks. It keeps growing from year to year. It grows 25-75 cm tall. The roots are reddish brown. The leaves grow from near the base. The flowers are in an irregular group with a ring of large leaf like bracts. These are unequal and can be 5-35 cm across. The fruit are 3 sided.