Scirpus microcarpus J.Presl & C.Presl

Plants spreading; rhizomes reddish, long, with conspicuous nodes and internodes. Culms: fertile ones upright or nearly so; nodes without axillary bulblets. Leaves 4–11 per culm; sheaths of proximal leaves red; proximal sheaths and blades with septa few to many, conspicuous or inconspicuous; blades 23–60(–75) cm × 5–15(–20) mm. Inflorescences terminal; rays divaricate or ascending, proximal branches almost smooth, distal branches scabrous, rays without axillary bulblets; bases of involucral bracts green, black, or red, not glutinous. Spikelets in dense clusters of (1–)3–18 (largest cluster with 6 or more spikelets), spikelets sessile, 2–8 × 1–3.5 mm, ovoid or narrowly ovoid; scales green or black, broadly ovate or ovate to broadly elliptic or elliptic, 1.1–3.4 mm, apex rounded to acute or apiculate or occasionally mucronate, apiculus or mucro (if present) to 0.2 mm. Flowers: perianth bristles persistent, (3–)4(–6) per flower, stout, straight or curved, shorter than to 1.5 times as long as achene, with retrorse, thick-walled, sharp-pointed teeth densely arranged almost to base, enclosed within (occasionally weakly projecting from) scales; styles 2(–3)-fid. Achenes almost white, ovate to obovate in outline, biconvex to plano-convex, 0.7–1.6 × 0.8–1 mm. 2n = 64, 66.

Wet low ground in lowlands to moderate elevations in the mountains. Marshes, moist meadows and ditches from sea level to 2900 metres.

The roots and stem bases can be eaten.

Can be grown by divisions or seedlings.