Plants perennial, cespitose, 50–110 cm; rhizomes absent. Culms lax, often excurved, slender, ± te-rete or trigonous. Leaves ascending, exceeded by culm; blades linear, proximally flat, 1.5–2.5 mm wide, apex trigonous, subulate, tapering. Inflorescences: clusters 3–4, widely spaced, narrowly, compactly, or diffusely turbinate; leafy bracts exceeding proximal clusters. Spikelets deep red brown, ovoid to broadly ellipsoid, 2–3 mm, apex acute to acuminate; fertile scales broadly elliptic to obovate or orbiculate, 1.4–2(–2.5) mm, apex rounded to notched, midrib short excurrent. Flowers: perianth bristles 0–3, vestigial when present. Fruits 2–4 per spikelet, 1.5 mm; body pale brown to brown, strongly flattened, orbicular to broadly obovoid, 1–1.3 × 0.9–1.2 mm, surfaces sharply transversely wavy rugose, intervals finely vertically striate with rows of linear rectangular alveolae; tubercle depressed, triangular, flattened, 0.2–0.3 mm, base lunate.
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Much like no. 28 [Rhynchospora torreyana A. Gray]; spikelets ovoid, 2–3 mm; bristles lacking, or caducous, or 1–3 and up to a third as long as the achene; achenes broadly obovate, 1–1.3 × 0.9–1.1 mm, with a few (less than 8) transverse ridges; tubercle 0.2–0.3 mm. Moist or wet soil or shallow water on the coastal plain; se. Va. to Fla., Tex., and the W.I.
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