Herbs, perennial, rhizomatous, 3--15 dm. Rhizomes 3--4 diam., nodes not swollen, smooth. (often developing filiform leaves in running water). Culms erect, terete to compressed, 5--12 mm diam. Cataphylls 1--3, straw-colored to pink, apex acute. Leaves: basal 0, cauline 2, long capillary leaves often found in fascicles on rhizomes; auricles 0.3--0.5 mm, apex rounded, scarious; blade terete, 50--70(--100) cm x 2--5 mm, those of proximal leaves usually overtopping inflorescences, distal leaves usually inflated bladeless sheaths, occasionally absent or withll well-developed blades. Inflorescences terminal panicles of 20--100 heads, 4--15 cm, branches erect to ascending; primary bract erect; heads (3--)5--13(--25)-flowered, hemispheric to turbinate, 6--8 mm diam. Flowers: tepals straw-colored or reddish, lanceolate, 2.3--3.2(--4) mm, nearly equal, apex acuminate to awned; stamens 6, anthers 1.5--2 times filament length. Capsules straw-colored, 1-locular, ovoid, 2.3--3.3 mm, equaling perianth, tapering to subulate tip, valves separating at dehiscence. Seeds obovoid, 0.5--0.6 mm, not tailed; body clear yellow-brown.
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Stems stout, erect from a rhizome, (3–)5–10 dm, with a few (or no) bladeless sheaths near the base and a single (seldom two) long foliage lf near the middle, its stout stiff blade overtopping the infl; rhizome, when submersed, often producing many long capillary lvs; infl obpyramidal, 4–15 cm, freely branched (the branches ascending), the obpyramidal to subhemispheric glomerules 5–13(–25)-fld; fls eprophyllate; tep lance-subulate to lanceolate, subequal, 2.3–3.5(–4) mm, the sep often aristulate; stamens 6; fr unilocular, trigonously ovoid-prismatic, 2.4–3.3 mm, acuminate into a conspicuous beak. Shallow water and wet shores; N.S. to Del.; inland in n. N.Y., s. Ont., and n. Mich.J. subnodulosus Schrank, a European species, was collected as a waif in Mass. many years ago and described as J. pervetus Fernald. It has obtuse tep and widely spreading primary branches of the infl.
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