Plants colonial, long-rhizomatous, vegetative shoots widely scattered and inconspicuous from deep rhizomes. Culms 15–65 cm, smooth to scabrous distally. Leaves proximal sheaths with blades, brownish or purple–tinged, slender, 1.3–3.2 mm diam.; ligules (0.6–)1–6 mm, (0.8–)1–2 times longer than wide; leaf blades green, flat, 3–20 cm × 1.5–5 mm, herbaceous. Inflorescences 4–32 cm, 0.9–1.6 times as long as proximal bract; proximal bracts 4–22 cm, sheaths 0.5–5 cm, blades 3.5–17 cm; pistillate spikes ovoid to linear-cylindric, 6–40 × 3–5.8 mm; lateral spikes erect or ascending on stiff peduncles. Pistillate scales brown or purple tinged, apex awned or obtuse. Perigynia ascending to spreading, green, 2.5–4 × 1–2.2 mm, minutely papillose; beak minute, bent. Achenes light to dark brown, 1.8–3 × 1.2–1.6(–1.8) mm.

Fruiting late spring–early summer. Calcareous fens, bogs, and swales; 20–1000 m; Man., Ont., Sask.; Conn., Ill., Ind., Iowa, Md., Mass., Mich., Minn., Mo., N.J., N.Y., N.Dak., Ohio, Pa., S.Dak., Va., W.Va., Wis.

See notes under 257. Carex meadii.