Japan Flora: Sterms 20-50 cm. long, 1.5-3 mm. across, green, usually branched, densely tuberculate, 4- to 10-grooved, the central cavity small; sheaths 5-12 mm. long, loose, usually green, the teeth 10 or fewer, acuminate, broadly lanceolate, blackish, the margins narrowly scarious; branches ascending, simple, 4- or 5-grooved, the sheaths with lanceolate-deltoid appressed brown-tipped acuminate teeth; spikes 1-3 cm. long, pedunculate. Fruiting May-June. Boggy places; Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku, Kyushu; more common northward.

Sakhalin, Kuriles, Korea, Formosa, China, Siberia to Europe, and N. America.

Russia Flora: Plant, up to 80 cm tall. Roots black, usually with tubers. Stems usually with branches directed obliquely upward, rarely simple, wing-ribbed, shiny in the lower part. Leaf teeth 6-9, free, with a wide white border. Cones 10-20 mm long, somewhat blunt. 

All regions of the Far Eastern flora, except Komandorskie Islands; undoubtedly found in Nyukzha and Dauria, probably also in Aldan. (Fig. 3).  In swamps, wet meadows, and along the shores of water bodies. Poisonous (to livestock).  General distribution: European part, Caucasus, Western and Eastern Siberia, Central Asia; Scandinavia, Atlantic and Central Europe, Mediterranean, Asia Minor, Mongolia, Japan-China, North America. Described from Europe.

Note: In Khabarovsk (Amgun River valley near the village of Berezovoe), a variety  var. polystachyum Weigel was collected with numerous (up to 50) small cones at the ends of lateral branches.