Culms erect, slender, 20-40 cm. Leaves ± pale green usually flat, 1.5-2.5 mm wide. Inflorescences 13-20 × 8-12 mm. Pistillate scales 2.7-3.5 mm, mostly enveloping perigynia. Perigynia lightly or obscurely several-veined, 2.5-3.2 × 1.2-1.5 mm.

Fruiting Jul-Aug. Salt marshes, gravelly seashores; of conservation concern; 0 m; Alaska.

Carex glareosa subsp. pribylovensis is known only from the Pribilof and Aleutian islands.