Japan Flora: Sterile stems 20-60 cm. long, green, 2-3 mm. across, 8- to 20-grooved, the internodes minutely spiny on the ridges; primary sheaths 3-8 mm. long, pale green, the teeth subulate-deltoid, pale brown, scarious, with a darker colored midrib and white margins; branches horizontally spreading, simple, verticillate, the sheaths pale, with 3 or 4 short, deltoid, acute teeth; fertile stems 10-25 cm. long, simple or with short branches at maturity of the spike, the sheaths 5-10 mm. long, pale yellow-green, with 10-20 lanceolate white-scarious teeth, the midrib brown; spikes 1.5-4 cm. long, pedunculate. Hokkaido (n. and e. distr.); rare;

Sakhalin, n. Kuriles, Korea, Siberia to Europe, and N. America.