Montana Field Guide

Caespitose with old leaves at the often reddish base. Stems erect, 10–45 cm. Leaves basal and lower-cauline; blades 1–4 mm wide. Inflorescence of 3 to 5 short-pedunculate, ascending to erect, loosely clustered spikes. Spikes 10–18 mm long, all similar; male flowers basal on uppermost spike otherwise all female. Perigynia green to purplish, elliptic, 3–4 mm long, scabrous on the margins; beaks 0.3–0.5 mm long; stigmas 3. Female scales blackish throughout, as long or barely shorter than the perigynia but nearly as broad. Achene 3-sided, partly filling the perigynium (Lesica et al. 2012. Manual of Montana Vascular Plants. BRIT Press. Fort Worth, TX).

Moist to dry meadows, turf, fellfields; subalpine, lower alpine (Lesica et al. 2012. Manual of Montana Vascular Plants. BRIT Press. Fort Worth, TX).