Culms 11-40 cm, glabrous on angles. Leaves: proximal sheaths brown, fronts with pale brown spots, veinless, with blades, glabrous; leaf blades 3-6 mm wide. Perigynia obovoid.

Fruiting Aug-Sep. Wet subalpine and alpine meadows; 3000-4500 m; Colo., Wyo.

A common sedge of the southern Rocky Mountains, Carex scopulorum var. scopulorum is distinguished from var. bracteosa by the glabrous stems and sheaths, and by the broader more obovoid perigynia.