Slender perennial 1-4 dm, the basal corms prominent; lvs rigid, folded, ±recurved, shorter than the glabrous stem; bracts 3-7, divergently ascending, the longer usually surpassing the infl; rays (2-)4-10(-16), to 8 cm; spikes loosely fld, subglobose, 6-25 mm thick; spikelets radiating in all directions from a very short axis, to 12 mm, 2-10-fld; scales approximate, clearly overlapping vertically, ovate, 1.8-2.8 mm, blunt, scarcely mucronulate, multinerved; rachilla-joints with conspicuous hyaline wings; achenes trigonous with flat sides, 1.5-2 mm, a third to half as thick; 2n=ca 166. Dunes and dry, sandy soil, chiefly on the coastal plain; se. N.H. to Ga.
Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.