Herbs. Stems erect, green or brown-ish, simple or branched from below middle, not wiry, 5-50 cm, glabrous or papillose-scabridulous. Leaves uniformly distributed, articulated to ocreae, basal leaves caducous or persis-tent, distal leaves abruptly reduced to bracts; ocrea 6-15 mm, glabrous or papillose-scabridulous, proximal part cylindric, distal part soon disintegrating into a few brown fibers; petiole 0.1-1 mm; blade 1-veined, with 1 pleat on each side of midrib, narrowly lanceolate to linear, 25-40 × 1-8 mm, margins usually flat, papillose-denticulate, apex mucronate or cuspidate. Inflorescences axillary and terminal, spikelike, slender, elongate; cymes spaced along branches, 1-2(-3)-flowered. Pedicels enclosed in ocreae, erect, 1-1.5 mm. Flowers closed; perianth 2.5-4.2 mm; tube 15-22% of perianth length; tepals overlapping, green, often brownish when dried, with pink or white margins, petaloid or sepaloid, elliptic, cucullate, navicular, apex rounded; midveins usually unbranched, rarely branched; stamens 8. Achenes enclosed in or slightly exserted from perianth, black, elliptic to oblong, 2.3-4 mm, faces subequal, shiny, smooth or minutely striate-tubercled near edges and apex. 2n = 20.
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Slender annual, 1–4 dm, with ascending or erect branches; lvs linear, 1–3 cm, subulate-tipped, minutely spinulose-serrulate, plicate in 2 folds near the midvein; fls remote, mostly only 1 per ocrea; perianth deeply cleft, the oblong segments connivent over the achene; achene black, sharply trigonous, 2.5–4 mm; 2n=20, 30, 32. Dry, chiefly acid soils; Me. to Minn., s. to Ga. and Tex.
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