Japan Flora: Plant densely tufted in large clumps; culms rather slender, 40-70 cm. long, scabrous, acutely angled; leaf-blades rather firm, scabrous, 2-3 mm. wide, the basal sheaths bladeless, dark reddish, prominently reticulate-fibrous; spikes 2-4, approxi­mate toward tlie top of the culm, the terminal staminate, linear, the lateral pistillate, sessile, short-cylindric, 15-3 cm. long, about 4 mm. thick, erect, the bracts short, the lowest setaceous or scalelike; pistillate scales oblong, rather obtuse, dark purplish brown; perigynia longer than the scales, elliptic, 2- 2.5 mm. long, minutely punctate, nerveless, abruptly very short-beaked, the tip entire; stigmas 2. June-July. Wet places, especially in sphagnum bogs. Hokkaido. Cooler re­gions of Eurasia.

var. minuta (Franch.) Kuek. Basal sheaths dark reddish; pistillate spikes shorter, 7-15 mm. long, oblong; perigynia smaller. Wet places, especially in sphagnum bogs; Hokkaido. Sakhalin.