Culms to 120 cm × 7 mm. Leaf blades glaucous, to 100 cm × 8-15 mm. Inflorescences to 15 × 4 cm. Perigynia to 5-6 × 2 mm; beak 3-3.5 mm.

Fruiting Apr-Jun. Seasonally saturated or inundated soils in wet meadows, marshes, edges of tidal marshes, cypress swamps, or alluvial bottomlands; 0-1500 m; Ala., Fla., Ga., Md., N.C., Ohio, S.C., Va., W.Va.

Carex stipata var. maxima replaces Carex stipata var. stipata in the southern parts of its range and is distinguished by its larger size, longer perigynia, and longer beaks.

Rare; it is usually found on the borders of ponds and streams, in low woods, roadside ditches, swamps, marshes, bogs, and woodland swales. In the western portion of its range transitional forms between this plant and C. stipata occur with a frequency which discourages attempts to maintain it as specifically distinct. Of the five collections known from Indiana three are typical of var. maxima in all their characters while two (Deam no. 36082, with leaves averaging only 7 mm wide, and Deam no. 38688, with no perigynia over 5 mm long and some less, with the beaks of the perigynia only slightly longer than the bodies but leaves averaging 10 mm wide) approach the typical form of C. stipata.