Culms to 30 cm. Inflorescences: larger involucral bracts 1-3 cm; peduncles 5-20 mm, usually scabrous all around. Scales gray to black, usually with pale margins. 2n = 60.

Fruiting summer. Tundra, snowbeds, meadows; 0-500 m; Greenland; N.W.T., Nunavut, Que., Yukon; Alaska; Eurasia.

Intermediates between the two subspecies of Eriophorum angustifolium occur in the low arctic and high boreal regions of Canada and Alaska. The names Eriophorum komarovii Vassiliev and E. angustifolium subsp. scabriusculum Hultén have been applied to such plants.