Plants loosely colonial, long-rhizomatous. Culms erect, 20-75 cm. Leaves 4-10; basal sheaths reddish to brownish; sheath of the distal leaf 2-10 cm; ligules rounded to triangular, 2-7 mm; blades 10-40 cm × 2-6 mm. Inflorescences 10-42 cm; peduncles of proximal spikes 0.5-10.5 cm, basal 2 peduncles 2-10 cm apart; of terminal spike (3-)6-18 cm, exceeding the distal pistillate spike by 2-12 cm; bracts leafy, sheaths 0.5-5 cm; blades 10-30 cm × 2-4 mm. Spikes: proximal pistillate spikes 1-3(-4), separate, 10-30-flowered, ovoid, 1.5-4.5 cm × 1.5-3 cm; terminal staminate spike 1, 0.5-7 cm × 2-3 mm. Pistillate scales 3-7-veined, lanceolate-ovate, 4.5-6.5 × 1.5-2 mm. Anthers 3, 3-4.5 mm. Perigynia narrowly ovoid, 10-14 × 3.5-6 mm, shiny, glabrous; beak conic, 4.5-7 mm. Achenes broadly stipitate, rhomboid, flat faces, angles thickened, 2.5-3.5 × 1.7-2 mm; style same texture as achene. Fruiting late spring-summer. Swamp forests, forest openings; 0-400 m; Ala., Ark., Del., Fla., Ga., Ill., Ind., Ky., La., Md., Miss., Mo., N.J., N.C., Ohio, Okla., S.C., Tenn., Tex., Va.

From Flora of Indiana (1940) by Charles C. Deam

A southern species which reaches its northwestern limit in southern Indiana where it is infrequent in low open woods, flat woods, and cypress swamps, mostly in the unglaciated area.

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Indiana Coefficient of Conservatism: C = 8

Wetland Indicator Status: OBL

Stems 2-8 dm, slender, smooth, solitary or few together from long, dark, scaly sympodial rhizomes; basal sheaths persistent, reddish to brownish; lvs 2-6 mm wide, the uppermost nonbracteal one with a sheath 2-10 cm; terminal spike staminate, 0.5-7 cm, on a peduncle 3-10 cm; pistillate spikes 1-4, short-cylindric, 1.5-4.5 נ1.5-3 cm, pedunculate, not crowded, their subtending bracts leafy, 10-30 cm, basally sheathing; pistillate scales 4.5-6.5 mm, lance-ovate, awnless; perigynia 10-30, smooth and shiny, strongly multinerved, 10-14 נ3.5-6 mm, rounded at base, with a conic beak 4.5-7 mm, the teeth smooth; achene 2.5-3.5 נ1.7-2 mm, widest near the middle, broadly stipitate, trigonous with ±flat faces and somewhat thickened angles; style persistent and becoming bony, strongly contorted near the base. Wet woods and swamps, chiefly on the coastal plain; N.J. to Fla. and Tex., n. in the Mississippi Valley to s. Ind.

Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.

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