Scirpus schaffneri Boeckeler, Bot. Jahrb. Syst. 7: 275. 1886; S. pringlei Britton

Herbs, annual, cespitose, diminutive. Culms at most to 7 cm. Leaves overtopping scapes; sheaths pale, shorter than blade; blades spreading or curving outward, filiform, 0.5 mm wide, flat to slightly involute, margins thickened, scabrid. Inflorescences: spikelets solitary, either atop short, stiff glabrous scapes or very short-scaped to subsessile and clustered at plant base, pale with greenish scale midribs, ovoid, 5 mm; involucral bracts 2, the proximal strongly bladed, much exceeding spikelet. Spikelets: fertile scales lanceolate, keeled, 3.5 mm, keel excurrent as mucro or cusp. Flowers: stamens 3; anthers narrowly oblong, 0.5 mm. Achenes yellowish or pale gray, ribs prominent, trigonous obovoid, 1 mm, faces evenly, finely transversely rugose.

Fruiting all year. Sandy or gravelly clearings in pine or oak-pine; 0–3000 m; N.Mex.; n Mexico.