Japan Flora: Culms 30-70 cm. tall, tufted; leaf-blades rather stiff, 5-7 mm. wide, the basal sheaths pale; spikes 3-5, contiguous, the terminal staminate, erect, linear, 2-3 cm. long, the others pistillate, cylindric, 2-5 cm. long, nodding, peduncled, densely many­flowered, the bracts leaflike, longer than the inflorescence, the lowest one subvaginate; pistillate scales narrowly ovate, long- axvned, pale, ciliolate; perigynia more than twice as long as the scales, A-5 mm. long, spreading or reflexed when fully mature, broadly lanceolate, compressed-trigonous, light yellow-ish green, many-nerved, gradually long-beaked, with a deeply bifid firm tip, the lobes needlelike, erect; stigmas 3, short. Swamps;

Hokkaido, Honshu (Shinano and Mutsu Prov.); rare.  Siberia, N. America, Europe, and N. Africa