Japan Flora: Sterms 20-50 cm. long, 1.5-3 mm. across, green, usually branched, densely tuberculate, 4- to 10-grooved, the central cavity small; sheaths 5-12 mm. long, loose, usually green, the teeth 10 or fewer, acuminate, broadly lanceolate, blackish, the margins narrowly scarious; branches ascending, simple, 4- or 5-grooved, the sheaths with lanceolate-deltoid appressed brown-tipped acuminate teeth; spikes 1-3 cm. long, pedunculate. Fruiting May-June. Boggy places; Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku, Kyushu; more common northward.
Sakhalin, Kuriles, Korea, Formosa, China, Siberia to Europe, and N. America.