Scirpus uniglumis Link in Sprengel, Schrader & Link, Eds., Jahrb. Gewächsk. 3:77 (1820); E. fennica var. sareptana Zinserl. in Fl. URSS 3: 587 (9135). E. multiseta Zinserl., l.c.: 586 (1935). E. paucidentata Zinserl., l.c.: 588 (1935). E. transcaucasica Zinserl., l.c.: 585 (935). E. uniglumis var. latior T. Koyama, Acta Phytax. Geobot. 17: 49 (1957); - Strandhede & Dahlgren, Bot. Not. 121: 149, 151 (1968).

Tufted perennial, (5-)15-40 cm. Rhizome creeping, 1-2 mm diam., aerial stems arising in distal parts of internodes. Stem 1-2 mm diam., deeply grooved, with 10-16 prominent veins, sometimes rather smooth and soft, easily compressed, green or greyish green. Open sheats ephemeral; lower closed sheath 20-35 mm, mostly reddish brown, mouth oblique; upper 40-125 mm, basal part reddish brown, distal part mostly green, mouth straight, scarious, often reddish. Spike 7-15 x 3?4 mm, narrowly ellipsoid or ovoid, apex obtuse, with 20-40 loosely imbricating glumes; basal glume sterile, 1.9-2.6 mm, completely clasping or nearly so, sides brown or dark reddish brown, margins widely scarious, apex rounded; glumes 2.8-4.2 mm, cymbiform, obtuse or acutish, midnerve not reaching the apex, sides mostly dark reddish brown, sometimes pale brown, margins narrowly or widely scarious. Perianth bristles 4-6, weak and unequal, as long as nut or sometimes overtopping stylopodium, light brown; stamens 3, anthers 1.5-2.5 mm; stigmas 2. Nut 1.4-1.9 x 1-1.4 mm (excl. stylopodium), obovoid, sometimes globose, thickly bi-convex, yellow or light brown, surface glossy, obscurely or clearly reticulate; stylopodium 0.3-0.7 x 0.5-0.8 mm, rounded conical, mostly wider than long, mammiform, trabeculate, constricted from nut.

Fl. Per.: May - August.

Type: "Scirpus fuscatus/uniglumis/ Ppe Warnemünde Rost./Herb. Link 1346". Herb. Willdenow 1160 (B) microfiche!.

Wet meadows, along shores, salt marshes, 1400-3100 m; Distribution: Wide, probably circumboreal, but inadequately known; Europe, NW Africa, Turkey, Caucasus, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan.

C.B.Clarke (1893, 1898) included E. uniglumis in E. palustris s.l. Also the records by Stewart (1972) need to be confirmed. Eleocharis oxylepis (Meinsh.) B. Fedtsch., described from W. Kazakhstan, is reported doubtfully (Koelz 2934; 2519) from Kashmir (Stewart 1972); the two records are here considered to represent E. uniglumis.