Plants densely cespitose. Culms 10-35 cm. Leaves: sheath ad-axially white-hyaline, summits U-shaped; distal ligules 0.9-2 mm; blades 2-4(-5) per fertile culm, occasionally folded, 6-20 cm × (0.5-)1-2(-2.5) mm, if not folded, margins revolute. Inflorescences dense or open, gold to dark brown, 1.7-3 cm × 11-18 mm; proximal internode 4-8.6 mm; 2d internode 1.5-3.5 mm; proximal bracts usually scalelike or bristlelike, occasionally leaflike, shorter than inflorescences. Spikes 3-6, distant to loosely aggregated, distinct or individually indistinct, broadly ovoid, 10-15 × 7-9 mm, base acute to attenuate, apex rounded. Pistillate scales gold or reddish to dark brown, with pale midstripe, lanceolate to ovate, 3.5-4.8 mm, usually shorter than and 1/3-1/2 width of perigynia, margin white, 0-0.2 mm wide, apex obtuse to acuminate. Anthers long-persistent. Perigynia ascending to spreading, gold to coppery; conspicuously 3-11-veined abaxially, conspicuously 0-13-veined adaxially, broadly ovate, usually flat, 4.3-6.3 × 2-3 mm, 0.25-0.5 mm thick, margin flat, including wing 0.4-0.9 mm wide, edge often minutely crinkled; beak red-brown or brown, usually white-hyaline at tip, cylindric, unwinged, ± entire for (0.3-)0.5-0.9 mm, ciliate-serrulate at least on distal body, abaxial suture inconspicuous or with conspicuous white margin, distance from beak tip to achene (1.9-)2.2-3.7 mm. Achenes elliptic, 1.5-2.1 × 0.75-1.1(-1.3) mm, 0.25-0.5 mm thick.

Fruiting summer. Montane and rocky places; 2400-4100 m; Calif., Idaho, Wash.