Stems sulcatestriate, smooth, 2-5 cm by ½-1 mm. Leaves distichous, but often less regularly imbricate, overtopping the stems, c. 1 mm wide; margins scaberulous at the top; sheaths stramineous, often tinged with purple. Spikelet 1(-2), terminal or in one of the upper axils, oblong, usually 4-5 mm long, but the outermost glume often leaf-like and up to 9 mm. Glumes 3, lanceolate, brownish to purplish, with green keel, ciliate at the top. Hypogynous scales narrowly lanceolate, with antrorsely scabrousciliate margins, stramineous, about as long as the nut. Style hardly thickened at the base. Nut ellipsoid or sub-obovoid, stramineous to brown, hispidulous at the top, 1⅓-1½ by ⅔ mm.
One of the characteristic plants of alpine bog turfs, forming carpets or in small rounded clumps, 2600-3800 m.
Home