Culms 35-90 cm, scabrous on angles. Leaves: proximal sheaths red-brown, fronts with (red) pale brown spots, prominently ladder-fibrillose, bladeless, glabrous, backs scabrous; leaf blades 3-6 mm wide. Perigynia ellipsoid to obovoid, apex acute. 2n = 74.

Fruiting Jul-Aug. Wet subalpine meadows; 1000-1400 m; B.C.; Idaho, Mont., Wash.

Carex scopulorum var. prionophylla usually occurs at somewhat lower elevations than var. bracteosa. Where the two are sympatric, they can be distinguished by the bladeless, ladder-fibrillose basal sheaths and the narrower ellipsoid perigynia of var. prionophylla.