Japan Flora: Green; rhizomes very short; stems tufted, 30-60 cm. long, terete, slender; leaves flattened, grasslike, shorter than the stem, slightly involute, the auricle elliptic, 2-3 mm. long, grayish white, scarious; inflores­cence terminal, cymose, the bracts leafy, longer than the in­florescence; flowers solitary; perianth-segments nearly equal in length, lanceolate, acute, light green, 3.5-4 mm. long; stamens 6, half as long as the perianth, the anthers half as long as the filaments; capsule light green, ovoid-ellipsoidal, as long as to slightly shorter than the perianth; seeds obliquely obovoid. July-Sept Waste places along roadsides in mountains.

Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku, Kyushu; quite common and rather variable. Europe, centr. Asia, N. and S. America and Australia.