Japan Flora: Rhizomes sometimes short-creeping (forma stolonu jera Ohwi): culms many, 20-50 cm. long; leaves densely fasci­cled, the blades 3-8 mm. wide, subcoriaceous to rather soft, slightly scabrous, flattened, the basal sheaths purplish brown or reddish fuscous, more or less lustrous, scarcely fibrous; spikes 3-5, distant, the terminal staminate, linear, 2-4 cm. long, the others pistillate, broadly linear, 1.5-3 cm. long, loosely many­flowered, long-ped uncled, the bracts long-sheathing, short- setaceous; pistillate scales obovate, pale or tawny to purplish brown, rounded or truncate at the apex and mucronate; peri­gynia longer than the scales, erect, oblong or obovate-oblong, nerved, 3-4 mm. long, usually sparsely pubescent, rather abruptly shorvbeaked, with a minutely 2-toothed, membranous apex; stigmas 3. May—July. Woods in mountains.

Hok­kaido, Honshu, Shikoku, Kyushu; common and variable. Formosa

var. imbecillis Ohwi. Plant wholly green, with thinner, softer, broader leaves, stoloniferous. Kyushu.

f. pallidisquama (Ohwi) Ohwi Pistillate scales pale.

f. glaberrima (Ohwi) Ohwi Perigynia glabrous.