Stems 6--48 cm; teeth 3--12, erect, centers dark, margins white, prominent.

Cones maturing in late summer, or cones overwintering and shedding spores in spring. Lakeshores, riverbanks, ditches, wet woods, tundra; 0--3500 m; Greenland; St. Pierre and Miquelon; Alta., B.C., Man., N.B., Nfld., N.W.T., Ont., P.E.I., Que., Sask., Yukon; Alaska including the Aleutian Islands, Colo., Conn., Idaho, Ill., Ind., Maine, Mass., Mich., Minn., Mont., N.H., N.Y., Oreg., S.Dak., Utah, Vt., Wash., Wis., Wyo.; Europe; n Asia to Kamchatka.