Japan Flora: Plant loosely tufted, short rhizomatous; culms 20-30 cm. long, glabrous; leaf-blades 3-4 mm. wide, deep green, thin, flat, rather soft, the basal sheaths bladeless, soft, dark reddish, somewhat fibrous-reticulate ventrally; spikes 3 or 4, contiguous, the terminal gynecandrous, the others pistil­late, densely flowered, erect, elliptic to oblong, 6-8 nun. long, short-peduncled (the lowest one rather long-peduncled), the lowest bract leaf like, much longer than the inflorescence, not sheathing; pistillate scales small, broadly ovate, dark purplish brown; perigynia twice as long as the scales, ellipsoidal, about 2 nun. long, spreading, inflated, inconspicuously 3-angled, orange-yellow, firm-membranous, faintly nerved, abruptly short-beaked, with an entire, dark brown tip; stigmas 3, short. July-Aug. Alpine forests.

Honshu (Senjo-dake in Kai Prov.); very rare. India, w. China, s. Siberia, and n. Korea.