Japan Flora: Rhizomes very short; culms slender, many, tufted, 7-15 cm. long, glabrous; leaf-blades about 2 mm. wide, thin, flat, soft, overtopping the culms; spikes 5-7, the terminal staminate, pale, 6-7 mm. long, the others pistillate, narrowly oblong, 6-10 mm. long, the upper one contiguous, the lower 1 or 2 always radical or nearly so, the bracts leaflike, sheathing at base; pistillate scales obovate, pale green, very obtuse and mucronate, thin-membranous; perigynia about 3 mm. long, nearly erect, oblong-fusiform, thin-membranous, faintly nerved, rather abruptly short-beaked, with an emarginate tip; stigmas 3. June-July. Coniferous woods.
Hokkaido, Honshu (n. and centr. distr.). s. Kuriles.