Japan Flora: Rhi­zomes densely tufted, short-creeping; culms 30-50 cm. long, soft, scabrous above; leaf-blades soft, flat, 2-4 mm. wide, the lower basal sheaths bladeless, very short, lustrous, castaneous, the upper sheaths stramineous, soft, elongate, bladed; spikes 4-6, sessile, approximate, the terminal staminate or rarely with a few pistillate flowers at the apex, the otliers pistillate or sometimes with a few staminate flowers at base, oblong to short cylindric, 1-3 cm. long, erect, the lowest bract leaflike, not sheathing; pistillate scales narrowly ovate, dark purplish brown or dark sanguineous, rather small; perigynia longer than the scales, ovate to ovate-lanceolate, 2.5-3(-4) mm. long, somewhat turgid, obtusely 3-angled, pale green, thin-mem­branous, faintly several-nerved, with an abrupt, short recurved beak, with an entire tip; stigmas 3. June-July. Moist mossy rocks along torrents and in ravines in subalpine re­gions.

Hokkaido, Honshu (centr. and n. distr.). Sakhalin. polymorphic.

var. sharensis (Franch.) Ohwi. Perigynia 4 mm. long, slightly narrower than in die typical phase, with a longer beak. June-July. Hok­kaido.