Cespitose; lvs involute, filiform, 0.2–0.4 mm wide; glomerules 1 or commonly 2, the terminal ovoid or oblong, with 2–10 erect or ascending spikelets, the lateral remote, subsessile, with 1–4 spikelets; bristles 6, retrorsely barbellate or seldom smooth, surpassing the achene; achenes elliptic-oblong to narrowly elliptic-obovate, 1.7–2.1 mm, scarcely (or less than) half as wide, conspicuously narrowed toward the base, pale (and often obscurely darker-lined) centrally, darker toward the margins; tubercle subulate-attenuate, 0.8–1.6 mm; 2n=26. Calcareous swamps, bogs, and shores; Nf. to Sask., s. to Va., Tenn., and Mo.