Culms 2-7 dm, scattered on slender rhizomes; sheaths glabrous or nearly so; ligules 2-5 mm; blades flat, 3-7 mm wide, tapering to the base, scabrous beneath, nearly glabrous above; infl 4-15 cm, contracted, lanceolate to subcylindric; glumes acute, glabrous to scaberulous, the first 2.9-4.7 mm, the second 2.8-4.4 mm; lemma scabrous, 2.6-3.7 mm; callus-hairs scanty, a fourth as long as the lemma; awn inserted 1 mm above the base, twisted below, geniculate near the middle, about equaling the lemma; sexual, but seldom fruiting; 2n=28. Bogs and wet shores, mainly in the mts.; Nf. to the mts. of Mass. and N.Y.; disjunct on L.I. and in N.J.

Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.

©The New York Botanical Garden. All rights reserved. Used by permission.