Japan Flora: culms 20-40 cm. long; leaf-blades flat, bright green, 2-3 mm. wide, the basal sheaths brown, rarely reddish; spikes 2-4, approximate, the terminal staminate (rarely gynecandrous), linear, 7-15 mm. long, few­flowered, the lateral 2 or 3 pistillate, oblong, 10-15 mm. long, pendulous on long setaceous peduncles, the lowest bract leaf­like, erect, scarcely sheathing; pistillate scales broadly lanceo­late, long-acuminate, dark copper-red; perigynia suberect, shorter and broader than the scales, broadly elliptic, 2.5-3 mm. long, compressed-trigonous, densely puncticulate, slen­derly few-nerved, nearly beakless, the tip ferrugineous, entire; stigmas 3. June-July. Sphagnum bogs in mountains.

Honshu (Shinano and Uzen Prov.). n. Kuriles, and widely distributed in the N. Hemisphere.