Plants perennial, cespitose, 50–100 cm; rhizomes absent. Culms ascending-excurved, leafy, ± terete, slender. Leaves ascending, overtopped by culm; blades narrowly linear, proximally flat, 2–3 mm wide, apex trigonous, tapering. Inflorescences: spikelet clusters (1–)2–3, widely spaced, open to dense, broadly to narrowly turbinate, branches ascending to slightly spreading, capillary; leafy bracts setaceous-tipped, overtopping all but distal clusters. Spikelets light red-brown, ovoid, 3.5–5 mm, apex acuminate; fertile scales ovate, 2.5–3.5 mm, apex acute, midrib excurrent as cusp or mucro. Flowers: perianth bristles 6, reaching at most 2/3 length of fruit body, antrorsely barbellate. Fruits 1–4(–5) per spikelet, 2 mm; body brown, strongly compressed, obovoid-ellipsoid, 1.4–1.6 × 1–1.2 mm, margins flowing to tubercle; surfaces finely transversely rugose, intervals with narrow vertical alveolae; tubercle flat, low-triangular, 0.2–0.3(–0.5) mm.
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Cespitose, very slender, 5–10 dm; lvs 1–2 mm wide; cymes 2–4, freely branched, corymbiform, the terminal one 1–3 cm wide, the lateral smaller, on exsert peduncles;spikelets mostly pediceled, narrowly ovoid, 3–4 mm, castaneous, with 3–6 fls and 1–5 frs; bristles 6, antrorsely barbellate, to 1 mm; achenes castaneous, very flat, obovate, 1.3–1.6 × 1–1.2 mm, with ca 12 closely spaced transverse ridges; tubercle depressed-triangular, 0.3–0.4 mm. Wet sandy or peaty soil on the coastal plain; e. Mass. to Ga.
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