Herbs, perennial, cespitose, stooling, 4--10 (--12) dm. Rhizomes 3--5 mm diam. Culms terete, 1.5--3 mm diam. Cataphylls several. Leaves: blade absent. Inflorescences many flowered, open, 2--7 cm; primary bract terete, 10--25 cm. Flowers pedicellate; bracteoles ovate; tepals straw-colored to reddish brown, lanceolate, 2.7--3.5 mm, margins scarious; inner series loosely subtending capsule at maturity, shorter; stamens 6, filaments 0.8--1.5 mm, anthers 0.8--1 mm; style 0.3 mm. Capsules reddish brown to chestnut brown, 3-locular, 3-gonous-ovoid to widely ellipsoid, 3--4 mm, exceeding perianth. Seeds amber, obovoid, 0.3--0.5 mm, not tailed. 2n = 20, 38, 40.

Flowering and fruiting summer. Wet soils along streams, ditches, and on wet, sandy and peaty hillsides; introduced; Ont.; Mich., N.Y., Pa., Va.; Europe; Asia; Africa.

Stems cespitose from a short rhizome, 3-8 dm, glaucous, finely striate, without foliage lvs; basal sheaths to 10 cm, purple-brown at base, bristle-tipped; invol lf 1-2 dm, a fourth to a third as long as the stem; infl appearing lateral, 3-6 cm, freely branched and many-fld; fls prophyllate; tep lance-acuminate, 2.6-4 mm, slightly shorter to slightly longer than the dark purple- brown, shining, trilocular, beaked fr; anthers 6, about as long as the filaments; 2n=40, 42. Native of Eurasia and n. Afr., intr. in wet meadows and along roads in our range, as in N.Y., Ont., and Mich.

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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