Herbs, perennial, rhizomatous, tosometimes nearly cespitose, 0.8--7 dm. Rhizomes usually tuberous, 2--4 mm diam. Culms erect, terete, 1--3 mm diam., smooth. Cataphylls 0--1. Leaves: basal 1--2, cauline 2--3, green; auricles 1--2 mm, apex rounded, membranaceous; blade terete, 2--23 cm x 1--2 mm, distal cauline leaf blade 1.6--26 cm, equaling or longer than sheath. Inflorescences terminal panicles of 1--23(--32) heads, 2.5--9 cm, branches ascending to erect; primary bracts erect; heads 20--60-flowered, spheric or usually lobed, 6--11 mm diam. Flowers: tepals green to straw-colored, lance-subulate, 2--3.5 mm, nearly equal, apex acuminate; stamens 3, anthers 1/3 filament length. Capsules exserted, straw-colored, 1-locular, lance-subulate, 3--4 mm, apex tapering, remaining attached at tip, valves not separating at dehiscence, fertile throughout or only proximal to middle. Seeds oblong, 0.4 mm, not tailed; body clear yellow-brown.
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Stems slender, 3–8 dm, erect from stout rhizomes; lvs terete, conspicuously septate, 1–2 mm thick, the uppermost with a normal blade; auricles ovate-oblong, 1–2.5 mm; infl compact to divaricately branched, 3–12 cm, with 4–15 globose, many-fld heads 8–12 mm thick; fls eprophyllate; tep rigid, usually lance-subulate, 2.2–3.2 mm, green or turning brown in age; stamens 3; anthers shortly exsert; fr equaling or usually slightly surpassing the tep, trigonous-subulate, tapering to a prominent beak 0.5–1 mm, unilocular as in no. 31 [Juncus nodosus L.], dehiscent in the basal two-thirds. Wet sandy soil, meadows, and shores; s. N.Y. to Fla. and Tex., mostly on the coastal plain, n. in the interior to w. Ky., s. Mo., and Okla.; also in n. Ind. and sw. Mich.
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