Japan Flora: Rhizomes short; culms tufted, slender, 15-40 cm. long, acutely angled, slightly scabrous above; leaf-blades 1-2 mm. wide, bright green, flaccid; spikes 2-5, gynecandrous, or the lateral pistillate, nearly globose, 4-7 mm. long, light green, sometimes yellowish tawny, lustrous, the lower spikes loose, occasionally with setaceous basal bracts; pistillate scales pale or light tawny, with a green midrib; perigynia slightly exceeding the scales, ovate or ovate-elliptic, about 2 mm. long, indis­tinctly nerved, plano-convex, minutely scabrous on the mar­gins above, the beak short, shallowly cleft in front, minutely toothed at apex. June-July. Wet places in alpine or subalpine regions.

Hokkaido, Honshu (n. and centr. distr.).  Sakhalin, Kuriles, Siberia, Europe, and N. America.