Japan Flora: Rhizomes long-creeping; stems terete, 15-30 cm. long, minutely papillose and scaberulous; leaves grasslike, flattened, 2-3 mm. wide, shorter than the culms, the canline 1 to 2; inflorescence of 3 or 4, few-flowered heads, the lowest bract short; flowers about 4 mm. long inclusive of the capsule, pedicellate; perianth-segments nearly equal in length, the outer broadly lanceolate, acute, the inner narrowly ovate, obtuse, both dark reddish brown, papillose and scaberulous outside; stamens 6, half as long as the perianth-segments, the anthers slightly longer than the filaments; capsules ellipsoidal, slightly longer than the perianth, brown, emarginate; seeds obovoid. July-Sept. Peaty soils in lowlands.
Hokkaido (Nemuro), Honshu (Mutsu). Kuriles, Kamchatka, and N. America.