Erect from a stout rhizome, 5-15 dm, often emitting roots from submersed nodes; lower sheaths loose, shorter than the internodes, the upper tighter, usually exceeding the internodes, ciliate, sometimes hirsute; blades 1-3 dm נ5-15 mm, abruptly contracted at base; panicle 6-20 cm, slender, with appressed branches, the lower ones often remote; spikelets ±secund, short-pediceled, flattened-ovoid, 2.2-2.9 mm, the first glume half as long, somewhat gibbous at base; second glume and sterile lemma sharply veined, acute, the latter with a conspicuous palea; 2n=36. Swamps and ponds on the coastal plain; N.J. to Fla. and Tex.

Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.

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