Japan Flora: Rhizomes densely tufted, forming a large clump; culms 10 to 30 cm. long, slender, glabrous; leaf-blades 15-2 mm. wide, yellow-green, some­what lustrous, overtopping the culms’ the basal sheaths yellow­ish brown, lustrous; spikes 3 or 4, erect, approximate to con­tiguous, the terminal staminate, filiform, 5-10 mm. long, inconspicuous, the others pistillate, 5-12 mm. long, narrowly oblong to short-cylindric, the lowest one conspicuously peduncled, the bracts bladeless, rather long-sheathing; pistil­late scales obovate, usually rounded-truncate at the apex, pale or pale brown with pale margins, the midrib usually not caching the apex; perigynia slightly exserted, 2.3 mm. long, obovate, faintly nerved, sparsely puberulent to nearly glabrous, abruptly short-beaked, entire at apex; stigmas 3.  Apr.-May. Woods in low mountains; Honshu, Shikoku, Kyushu; rather common. s. Korea.

var. aristata Ohwi. Low bract foliaceous; pistillate scales ending in a mucro or short awn. With tlie typical phase. Formosa.