Stems ±cespitose, 1-8 dm; lvs basal, 1-3 dm, a third to half the height of the stems, flat and 1-1.5 mm wide, or becoming involute, varying to subterete and merely narrowly channeled on the upper side; sheaths scarious-margined, auriculate; invol lf 1-10 cm, often surpassing the infl, but not appearing as a continuation of the stem; infl loosely branched, not secund, the fls prophyllate; tep lance-subulate, the sep 3-5.5 mm, the pet 2.8-5 mm; anthers 6, shorter than the filaments; fr oblong- ovoid or slightly obovoid, obtuse to truncate, 2.6-4.2 mm, shorter than the sep, only imperfectly trilocular, the partitions not meeting in the center; seeds 0.3-0.5 mm, merely apiculate, mucilaginous when wetted; 2n=40, 42, 80, 84. Dry or moist (often compacted) soil, abundant along forest paths; almost throughout N. Amer., and naturalized elsewhere. Highly variable, and divisible with some difficulty into 3 vars.:
Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.