Wahlenberg's wood rush

Rhizomes short. Culms cespitose, 15--30(--35) cm. Leaves: sheath throat acutely angled, pilose; basal leaf blade 5--10 cm x 3--8 mm, apex short acuminate, mostly glabrous; cauline leaves (1--)2--4, 3--5 cm x 2--4 mm. Inflorescences anthelate, few flowered; main branches generally 2--4, spreading less than 90°, lax, usually arching; proximal inflorescence bract 1 cm or less; bracts and bracteoles brown; margins with long curly cilia. Flowers solitary on short pedicels; tepals dark purplish brown (margins finely lacerate toward apex), 2--2.5 mm, margins finely lacerate toward apex, apex acute, not reflexed; anthers ± equaling filament length; stigmas 2 times style length. Capsules dark brown, less than 2.5 mm, slightly longer than tepals; beak absent. Seeds dark reddish brown, cylindric, 1.2--1.6 mm; caruncle essentially absent. 2n = 24.

Flowering and fruiting late summer. Wet mossy arctic and alpine tundra, lake shores, alluvial rivers, shores of alpine creeks, gneissic seashores; 40--600 m; Greenland; B.C., Man., N.W.T., Nunavut, Que., Yukon; Alaska; Eurasia.