Status surveys of populations in the Witchita Mountains National Wildlife Refuge in Oklahoma, Florida and Kansas need to be conducted. Description Plants of this species arise from short, stout, black rootstocks. Both are solid and bluntly triangular. Scapes number between 10 and 15. Culms bear four to six leaves.
Blades are light green and flat or channeled.
Sheaths are thin with a ventral pattern of cross wrinkles. Red spots occur near the mouth of the sheath. Male flowers are located above the female flowers on the spike. Bracts vary in width but do not terminate with a needlelike tip. Ovaries are surrounded by a sac called a perigynium.