Culms usually 25-110 cm. Leaves usually 1-4(-4.5) mm wide, widest usually 1.6-4(-4.5) mm wide. Inflorescences usually (1.5-)1.8-5.5 cm; spikes 3-8. Perigynia 2.3-3.8 × 1.5-3 mm, 1.1-1.7 times as long as wide; beak usually 0.6-1.25 mm.

Fruiting late spring-early summer. Bogs, acidic swamp forests, wet pinelands, wet, acidic soils; 0-1300 m; N.S.; Ala., Ark., Conn., Del., D.C., Fla., Ga., Ill., Ind., Ky., La., Maine, Md., Mass., Mich., Miss., Mo., N.H., N.J., N.Y., N.C., Ohio, Pa., R.I., S.C., Tenn., Tex., Va., W.Va.

Occasional in tamarack bogs, generally in sphagnum.