Tufted, 2-5 dm, the culms smooth at the summit, the base not bulbous, but tending to be decumbent or shortly creeping; upper sheaths distended, especially near their middle; blades usually 3-6 mm wide, rough-margined; infl ellipsoid to thick-cylindric, 1-5 cm נ8-12 mm; glumes 2.5-3.5 mm, hispid-ciliate on the keel, tipped with an awn 1.5-3 mm, the thin margins usually purple; 2n=14, 28. Wet meadows and bogs; circumboreal at high latitudes, s. to the mts. of New England, and in n. Mich. and throughout the western cordillera; also in the colder parts of the s. hemisphere.
Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.
