Carex cavaleriei H. Léveillé & Vaniot; C. hancei C. B. Clarke.

Rhizome short, woody, rigid, stoloniferous. Culms 30-40 cm tall, slender, trigonous, sparsely pubescent, clothed at base with brown sheaths disintegrating into fibers. Leaves shorter than culm, blades gray-green, linear, 3-5 mm wide, flat, revolute, pubescent, apex acuminate. Involucral bracts shortly bladed, pubescent, long sheathing. Spikes 2 or 3, distant, peduncles pubescent; terminal spike male, clavate, 1.5-2.5 cm, with peduncles 4-9 mm; lateral spikes 1 or 2, female, oblong or oblong-cylindric, 2-2.5 × 1-1.4 cm, densely flowered. Female glumes yellow-white, ovate-lanceolate, 5-6 mm, green 1-veined costa excurrent into an awn. Utricles brown-green, longer than glume, ovate, trigonous, 7-8 mm (including beak), pubescent, many veined, apex abruptly contracted into a cylindric beak ca. 3 mm, orifice deeply 2-lobed with long acute teeth. Nutlets black at maturity, tightly enveloped, ovate, 3-4 mm, trigonous with angles constricted at middle, faces concave at base, base with short curved stipe, apex with short curved beak; style base thickened; stigmas 3. Fl. and fr. Mar-Apr.

Forested slopes, roadsides, streamsides. Anhui, Fujian, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Zhejiang [Japan, Korea].