Herbs perennial, rhizomatous, 20–60 cm, glabrous; rhizomes elongate, often forking, scaly; corms absent. Culms spaced along rhizome, erect, slender, wandlike, subterete, nodes swollen. Leaves mostly sheath; principal blades cusplike, thickened, rarely over 4 mm. Inflorescences strictly terminal; spikelets 1 or 2–5, sessile in clusters, exceeding short-linear subtending bract. Spikelets ovoid to lance-ovoid, 7–10(–15) mm, apex blunt; fertile scales ovate to obovate, 2.5–3.5 mm, ciliate; mucro erect, 1/2 or less length of scale; median ribs mostly 5. Flowers: perianth bristles equaling or slightly longer than perianth stipes, retrorsely barbellate; perianth blades ovate, as long as claws, 2–2.5 mm, base thinner, 3-ribbed, apex compressed-conic, apiculate; anthers linear-oblong, 2 mm. Achenes: body angles pale, wirelike, faces lustrous red-brown or chestnut brown, 1 mm; beak narrow, linear, distally papillate or scabridulous. 2n = 46.
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Rhizomatous perennial 2–6 dm; herbage essentially glabrous; sheaths loose, oblique at the orifice but virtually bladeless; spikelets 7–10(–15) mm, in a single terminal cluster of (1)2–5 subtended by a sheathing short-bladed bract; scales 2.5–3.5 mm, with at least 5 strong median nerves convergent to form a stiff, erect, scabrid mucro less than half as long as the scale; bristles retrorsely barbellate; pet-blades ovate, acutish-apiculate; anthers 3, ca 2 mm; 2n=46. Sandy or sandy-peaty marshes, swales, and seeps, sometimes in slightly brackish sites; along the coast from N.C. to Fla., Tex., and Cuba; disjunct in s. Ill.
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