Plants densely cespitose; rhizomes absent. Culms grooved, terete, 2-12 cm, smooth. Leaves: basal sheaths brown; distal leaf sheaths concave at mouth; blades 3.7-13 × 0.4-0.7 mm, much shorter than culms at flowering and fruiting. Inflorescences: spikelets 2-5-flowered, 3-4 × 1.5-2.5 mm; bracts 3.5-6.7 mm, 3.5-7.7, exceeding spikelets, apex with awn, awn (0.9)1-5.3 mm. Spikelets: scales brown, apex obtuse. Flowers: perianth bristles 0-6, brown, flattened, shorter than achenes, smooth or scabrous; anthers 0.9-1 mm. Achenes sharply trigonous, 1.2-1.6 × 0.7-0.8 mm.

Fruiting summer-early fall (Jul-Sep). Wet montane to alpine meadows, stream banks; 2400-3600 m; Calif.