Japan Flora: Plant densely tufted, forming large clumps; culms 30-60 cm. long, glabrous, nodding above; leaf-blades flat, stiff, deep green, lustrous above, 3-6 mm. wide, the basal sheaths pale, ultimately splitting into copious brown fibers covering the neck of the rhizomes; spikes 5-10, approxi­mate, the terminal gynecandrous and clavate-cylindric, or merely staminate and broadly linear, the lateral pistillate, the upper ones with a few staminate flowers at base thick-cylindric, 2-5 cm. long, peduncled, solitary or paired, nodding, the lower bracts leaflike, much longer than the culm, sheathing; pistillate scales narrow-ovate, acuminate and cuspidate, pale; perigynia twice as long as the scales, about 7 mm. long, ascending, narrowly ovoid, light yellowish green, lustrous, in­flated and loosely inclosing the achene, slenderly nerved, sca­brous at tip, rather long-beaked, with a hyaline tip; stigmas 3, short.  Apr.-May. Near seashores.

Honshu (Harima Prov.), Shikoku, Kyushu. s. Korea, Ryukyus, and Formosa.