Plants perennial, cespitose, 70–110 cm; rhizomes absent. Culms erect to excurved, leafy, obscurely trigonous, slender. Leaves spreading to ascending, shorter than culm, crowded toward culm base; blades linear, proximally flat, 1–3 mm wide, gradually involute, apically trigonous, subulate. Inflorescences: spikelet clusters 1–4, dense to open, mostly irregularly turbinate; peduncles ascending, branches spreading to erect, ultimate branches with many spikelets; leafy bracts setaceous tipped, usually exceeding all clusters, or at least all but the distal. Spikelets light red brown or brown, broadly ellipsoid to lanceoloid, 3–4 mm, apex acute to acuminate; fertile scales ovate to obovate or suborbiculate, 2–3.5 mm apex acute to rounded or emarginate, midrib included or exserted as mucro. Flowers: perianth bristles mostly 6, rarely reaching fruit midbody, antrorsely barbellate. Fruits mostly 1 per spikelet, 2–2.5 mm, body dark brown, obovoid to subglobose, tumid or lenticular, 1.5–1.7 mm, transversely finely rugose to nearly level, intervals with very small, pitlike alveoli.

Varieties 2 (2 in the flora): midwestern, se United States.

Lower Taxa

• Rhynchospora harveyi var. culixa (Gale) Kral
• Rhynchospora harveyi var. harveyi