Japan Flora: Rhizomes extensively creeping, branching; culms 10-20(-30) cm. long, obtusely angled, glabrous, firm, the basal sheaths reddish brown, splitting into fibers; leaf-blades flat, stiff, 2-4 mm. wide; upper 2 or 3 (rarely 1) spikes staminate, linear, 2-3 cm. long, reddish brown, the lower 1 or 2 pistil­late, approximate, oblong to short-cylindric, 1.5-3 cm. long, short-peduncled, erect, the bracts leaflike, short-sheathing; pistillate scales narrowly ovate, acute, cuspidate, somewhat redchsh brown; perigynia longer than the scales, 6-8 mm. long, ascending, ovoid-conical, ligneous, brownish green, obsoletely 3-angled, slenderly nerved, glabrous, abruptly short-beaked, with a firm bifurcate tip; stigmas 3. May-July. Sandy places along seacoasts.

Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku, Kyushu; common. Sakhalin, s. Kuriles, Korea, China,  Ryukyus, and Formosa to Australia.