Japan Flora: Stems long-creepi ng, leafy; branches ascending, somewhat forked at base, erect, to 20 cm. long, densely leafy, 8-13 mm. across; leaves of sterile branches spreading to subreflexed, 4-7 mm. long, 0.6-1.3 mm. wide, with an incurved tip, toothed, obso- letely costate on both sides, with a pungent awnlike tip; spikes solitary, terminal on the branchlets, 2.5-4 cm. long, 4-5 mm. across, sessile, erect; bracts dense, broadly deltoid-ovate, abrupdy acuminate with a short deciduous filiform tip, the margins erose-dentate, more or less hyaline. Coniferous woods:

Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku, Kyushu; rather common. Kuriles, Sakhalin, Kamchatka, Korea to China and the Himalayas, Siberia to Europe, and N. America.  

var. pungens Desv. Leaves as­cending, about 0.5-0.7 mm. wide, incurved at the tip, nearly entire. 

var. latifolium Takeda. Leaves horizontally to obliquely spreading, lanceolate, usually more than 1 mm. wide, slightly incurved at tip. 

var. angustatum Takeda. Leaves reflexed, linear-lanceolate, about 1 mm. wide or sometimes narrower.