Japan Flora: Rhi­zomes short, tufted; culms 40-80 cm. long, soft, glabrous, few­leaved; leaf-blades flat, soft, bright green, 3-7 mm. wide, the basal sheaths pale, ultimately dark brown fibrous; spikes 4-6, very loosely arranged, 2-4 cm. long, solitary or binate at each node, androgynous, the upper lateral ones on a peduncle aris­ing from a fertile perigynium, the lower ones on long some­times sparingly branched peduncles, the lower bracts leaflike, sheathing; pistillate scales pale green to light yellowish brown; perigynia twice as long as the scales or longer, 9-11 mm. long, appressed, ovoid-fusiform, light green, faintly nerved, thinly membranous, 3-angled, long-beaked, obliquely truncate at the hyaline tip; stigmas 3. May-July. Damp woods and wet grassy places along streams in mountains.

Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku, Kyushu; rather rare. s. Kuriles and Formosa (var.).