Plants loosely cespitose, usually long-rhizomatous. Culms to 30 cm. Leaf blades 3-15 cm × 1-1.5 mm. Spikes: staminate 5-15 × 1-2 mm; pistillate to 15 × 5 mm. Pistillate scales red-brown, margins hyaline, ovate to ovate-circular, 2-3.5 × 1.4-2.2 mm, apex subobtuse to acuminate, ± covering perigynium body. Staminate scales light brown, margins hyaline, oblong-lanceolate, 3-4.5 × 1-1.8 mm, apex acute. Perigynia yellow-green to brown, 2.5-3.3 × 1.2-2 mm; beak 0.4-0.9 mm. Achenes obovoid, 1.7-2 × 1.3-1.4 mm. 2n = 36.

Fruiting summer. Dry meadows and bluffs, rock outcrops, sandy soil on lakeshores and flood plains; 10-1300 m; Greenland; B.C., Man., N.W.T., Nunavut, Ont., Sask., Yukon; Alaska, Minn.; nc, ne Asia (Siberia, Russian Far East).