Japan Flora: Tufted plant; culms 20-60 cm. long, acutely angled, scabrous on the angles; leaf-blades 2-6 mm. wide, cinereous to glaucous-green, rather firm, the basal sheaths nearly bladeless, brown to yel­lowish, sparingly fibrous; spikes 3 to 5, the terminal usually staminate, the lateral pistillate, very often with a short staminate portion at apex, cylindric, 2-6 cm. long, erect, declinate or sometimes pendulous, approximate to contiguous, usually long-ped uncled, the lower bracts leaf-like, much longer than the culm; pistillate scales narrowly obovate, ferrugineous, truncate to emarginate, 3-nerved, the green midrib prolonged into a long slightly recurved awn; perigynia nearly twice as long as the body of the scales, elliptic, 2.5-3.5 mm. long, com­pressed-biconvex, almost nerveless, densely papillose, cinereous- green to cinnamon-colored, or becoming dark brown when dried, abruptly beaked, very short-emarginate at the tip; stigmas 2.  May. Wet places in lowlands.

Hokkaido, Hon­shu, Shikoku, Kyushu; common. Korea, Ryukyus, For­mosa, China, India, and Malaysia.