Japan Flora: Rhizomes short-creeping; culms few, 10-50 cm. long, rather stout, glabrous; leaf-blades relatively stiff, glabrous, 3-5 mm. wide, the basal sheaths partly dark brown, the lower ones short and nearly bladeless; spikes 3-5, approximate, the terminal staminate, the others pistillate, oblong to short-cylindric, 1.5-3 cm. long, the lower ones peduncled, sometimes nodding, the lowest bract leaf like; pistillate scales narrowly ovate, dark brown, awned or pointed; perigynium 4-5 mm. long, compressed, elliptic, faintly nerved, smooth, somewhat membranous, abruptly very short-beaked, the apex entire or minutely 2-toothed. July-Aug. Dry al­pine slopes.

Hokkaido, Honshu (n. and centr. distr.); rather abundant. Kuriles, Sakhalin, and Kamchatka (var. paramushirensis Ohwi).