Plants densely cespitose, in small clumps; rhizomes short. Culms often arching, weak, 10-40(-60) cm. Leaves: sheaths pale to mid brown abaxially, inner band thin and hyaline, concave at summit; ligules as wide as long, 2-8 mm; blades usually gray-green, flat to channeled, 5-15 cm × 1-2 mm, usually shorter than culms. Inflorescences erect, 1-2 cm × 5-12 mm; proximal bracts usually scalelike, shorter than spikes. Spikes 2-4, closely approximate, individually distinct, proximal lateral spikes pistillate, containing 5-10(-15) perigynia, oblong-linear; terminal spike gynecandrous, containing 10(-20) perigynia, clavate. Pistillate scales pale to red-brown with yellow-brown center and white-hyaline margins, oblong-ovate, subequal to perigynia, apex obtuse. Perigynia ascending, light to pale brown, often gray-brown at maturity, lightly or obscurely several-veined, from broadly elliptic-obovate to lanceolate, 1.5-3.5 × 1.-1.5 mm, widest near middle, subcoriaceous; beak short, entire. Achenes mid brown to red-brown, elliptic, 1.5 × 1-1.25 mm, dull to slightly glossy. 2n = 66.

Tufted on short rhizomes; stems very slender, 2-4 dm, surpassing the lvs; main lvs 1-2 mm wide; spikes 2-4, closely approximate in an ovoid or oblong head 1-2 cm, the lateral pistillate, the terminal with slender staminate base; scales ovate, slightly shorter than the perigynia, brown with narrow hyaline margins; perigynia obovate-fusiform, multinerved, 1.5-3 mm, less than 2.6 times as long as wide, the beak a fifth as long as the body; achene lenticular; 2n=66. Salt-marshes; interruptedly circumboreal, s. to N.B. and Que. Our plants represent the irregularly distributed var. amphigena Fernald. (C. marina, misapplied)

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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