Plants loosely cespitose or not, long-rhizomatous. Culms solitary or not, erect, 35-120 cm. Leaves 4-8; basal sheaths reddish to brownish; sheath of distal leaf 5-20 cm; ligules triangular, 4.5-35 mm; blades 20-60 cm × 5-16 mm. Inflorescences 15-40 cm; peduncles of basal 2 pistillate spikes 5-20 cm apart; of terminal 3-8 cm shorter than to somewhat exceeding the distal pistillate spike; bracts leafy, sheath 0.5-5 cm, blades 30-60 cm × 6-11 mm. Spikes: proximal pistillate spikes 2-5 per culm, ± separate, 20-75-flowered, cylindric, 3-8 × 2-3 cm; terminal staminate spikes 1-5, 2-8 cm × 2-4 mm. Pistillate scales 3-5-veined, lanceolate to lanceolate-ovate, 4.5-10.5 × 1.5-2 mm. Anthers 3, 2.8-5 mm. Perigynia stiffly spreading at right angles to rachis, lanceoloid to lance-ovoid, 11-18 × 4-6 mm, shiny, glabrous; beak conic, 6-9 mm. Achenes broadly stipitate, obconic with rounded to truncate summit and concave faces, angles strongly thickened, 2.2-2.6 × 2.7-3 mm; style same texture as achene. Fruiting late spring-early summer. Wet swamp forests, forest openings, open swamps; 0-400 m; Ala., Ark., Del., Fl., Ga., Ill., Ind., Ky., La., Md., Miss., Mo., N.C., Okla., S.C., Tenn., Tex., Va.