Dwarf rhizomatous, often turf-forming, perennial. Culms erect, terete, striate, nodeless, to 2.5 cm high, c. 0.5 mm diam. Leaves stiff, channelled, with blade to 4 cm long and c. 1 mm diam, much longer than culms; sheath dark red-brown, striate, shining; mouth glabrous; ligule present. Inflorescence of 1–4 spikelets in 1 or 2 clusters, erect, 0.7–1.1 cm long; lowest involucral bract to 4 cm long. Spikelets narrow-ovate, acute, 1–2-flowered, 3.5–5 mm long; glumes 3–4, lowest 1 or 2 empty, acute, straw-coloured to red-brown, shining, with glabrous margins, mid-vein occasionally scabrous; fertile glumes 3–4 mm long; hypogynous bristles 6, not plumose, as long as or slightly exceeding nut. Nut trigonous, ellipsoid, 3-ribbed, minutely reticulate-pitted or smooth, shining or glistening, straw-coloured, 1.2–1.9 mm long, 0.7–1.1 mm diam. Flowers summer.
HSF, HNF, VAlp. Also NSW, Tas. In damp herbfield or bog margins almost throughout the alps, sometimes forming extensive colonies.
