Slender perennial, 10-60 cm tall. Leaves linear, 2-6 mm wide, usually much shorter than culms. Bracts subtending inflorescence leaflike, short, l-5 cm long; spikes several, lax, on rays to 6 cm long or very short; spikelets linear, 1-3 cm long, bearing 12-30 flowers; scales purplish to black, keeled, obtuse, Achenes ca 1.5 mm long, obovate-ellipsoid, dark, bluntly trigonous. Kenoyer 152, Shattuck 357.