Japan Flora: Tufted, with ascending short rhizomes; culms 40-70 cm. long, acutely angled, the angles scabrous in upper part; leaves 4-6 mm. wide, rather soft, flat, the basal sheaths bladeless, soft, cinnamon-colored, scarcely splitting ventrally; spikes 2 to 4, approximate, the terminal staminate, linear, ferrugineous, the lateral pistillate, short- cylindric, 2-3.5 cm. long, 10-14 mm. wide, the lowest bract leaflike, longer than the inflorescence; pistillate scales ovate, obtuse, ferrugineous, hyaline on the margins, with a green midrib, mucronate; perigynia longer than the scales, oval- elliptic, 35-4.5 mm. long, inflated, biconvex, grayish green to grayish brown, densely papillose, abruptly very short- beaked, entire at tip; stigmas 2. Wet places; Hokkaido, Honshu, Kyushu; quite common. Ryukyus, China, Korea, and s. Kuriles.

var. levkaccus Ohwi. Perigynia vivid green, smooth, not papillose. Rarely occurs with the typical phase.