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Tufted and apparently annual, but sometimes with slender, short, inconspicuous rhizomes within the tuft; stems 0.5–5 dm, several-to many-ribbed, 0.5–2 mm thick; spikelet 5–13 mm, ovoid, with many (seldom less than 40) fls; scales 1.7–2.5 mm, purplish or brownish, with greenish midstrip and paler, hyaline margins, the lowest one empty orfloriferous; bristles mostly 6 or 7, brownish, retrorsely barbellate, equaling or surpassing the achene, or reduced or wanting; anthers 0.3–0.8 mm; style bifid or sometimes trifid; achene lenticular (even when the style is trifid), 1–1.5 mm, stramineous to olive or dark brown, smooth and shining; tubercle short, flattened, broad-based, appressed to the broad top of the achene; 2n=10. Marshes and other wet places, sometimes intertidal, widespread in the N. Hemisphere, and found throughout our range. (E. diandra, anintertidal ecotype; E. engelmannii; E. obtusa)
Culms 2–35 cm × 0.3–1 mm. Leaves: apex of distal leaf sheath obtuse to acute, tooth to 0.2 mm. Spikelets ovoid, 2–8 × 2–4 mm, apex acute (to blunt); floral scales 25–100+, ca. 10 per mm of rachilla, orange-brown, rarely stramineous, ovate, 1.5–2 × 1 mm, midribs often keeled in distal part of spikelet, apex rounded to subacute. Flowers: perianth bristles present, rarely absent, (5–)6–7, brown, fairly slender, exceeding tubercle; stamens 2(–3); anthers brown, 0.3 mm; styles 2-fid or some 3-fid. Achenes 0.75–1 × 0.6–0.85 mm. Tubercles deltoid, 0.3–0.5 × 0.3–0.5 mm, 3/5 of to as high as wide, 1/3–2/3 as high and 1/2–3/4 as wide as achene. 2n = 10.
