Culms 17-31 cm. Leaves: basal sheaths pale brown to orange-brown; blades pale green, conspicuously glaucous, widest leaves (4.1-)6-15 mm wide, equaling stems, coriaceous, margins hyaline, white, scabrous. Terminal spikes with staminate portion 2-5-flowered, 3.2-4 × 1.1-2.8 mm; pistillate portion 3-14-flowered. Lateral spikes 0. Pistillate scales green; proximal scales with apex acuminate; distal scales ovate, apex obtuse. Staminate scales green, ovate, 2.5-3.4 × 0.9-1.5 mm, margins connate at base, enfolding scales above, hyaline, white, apex obtuse. Anthers 1.6-2.2 mm. Perigynia tightly enveloping achenes, pale green, ellipsoid, 6.7-7.9 × 2-2.7 mm, apex abruptly contracted into beak; beak 2.7-4 mm, smooth. Achenes brown, obovoid to obpyriform, 2.8-3 × 2-2.5 mm. Stigmas clavate, convolute, minutely papillose. 2n = 98.

Fruiting spring (late Apr-late May). Steep, shaded slopes in rich, mesic to dry-mesic hardwood forests; Ark., Okla.

Carex latebracteata is endemic to the Ouachita Mountains of Arkansas and Oklahoma.