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Plants cespitose, tussock forming. Culms 10–60 cm; basal sheaths brown. Leaves: bladeless sheaths 1–3 per culm, expanding distally, to 1 mm wide; blades filiform, trigonous, not more than 1 cm. Inflorescences: involucral bracts absent. Spikelets solitary, erect, globose-subglobose to ovoid-oblong, 10–20 mm in flower, to 50 mm in fruit; scales lead-colored to greenish gray with white-hyaline margins to 1 mm wide; empty scales more than 10, ovate-lanceolate; proximal scales reflexed or spreading at maturity, 5–10 mm. Flowers: perianth bristles 10 or more, white, seldom reddish or brown, 10–18 mm, smooth; anthers 1–3 mm. Achenes ovoid to obovoid, 1.9–3.5 mm, apex minutely apiculate. 2n = 58, 60.
Very densely cespitose, forming large tussocks; stems 2–7 dm; lvs clustered at base, with filiform blade 1 mm wide; 1 or 2 dilated, bladeless sheaths mostly belowthe middle of the stem; spike solitary; basal sterile scales 10–15, lance-ovate, blackish, long-acuminate, with white or pale margins, spreading or reflexed at maturity; bristles white or seldom brownish or reddish; anthers 2–3 mm; achene distinctly obovate, 2.5–3.5 mm, slightly over half as wide, minutely (0.1–0.2 mm) apiculate; 2n=58, 60. Bogs and open conifer-swamps; circumboreal, s. to N.J., Pa., and n. Ind., and Alta. Fr Apr.–July. (E. callithrix, misapplied) Our plants are var. spissum (Fernald) B. Boivin. (E. spissum)
