Culms (3-)10-20 cm. Leaves: blades 0.5-1.5 mm wide. Pistillate scales brown, with hyaline margins, lanceolate, 2.5-3.5(-4.5) mm, as wide and as long as or slightly shorter than and enclosing perigynia. Perigynia finely veined, at least in proximal 1/2, 3-3.8 mm; beak teeth firm or flexible. 2n = 52. Fruiting Jun-Aug. Dry grasslands, dry bluffs, dry sandy flood plains; 10-1400 m; Alta., B.C., Man., N.W.T., Ont., Sask., Yukon; Alaska, Colo., Minn., Mont., N.Mex., N.Dak., S.Dak., Utah, Wyo.; Eurasia.