Flower:

A single spike at the top of the stem, lance-elliptic in outline, 5.4 to 8 mm (to ~1/3 inch) long, with 15 to 20 florets spirally arranged, each floret subtended by a single scale. Scales are 4 to 5 mm long, blunt to pointed at the tip, yellowish to brown. Florets have 3 stamens, a 3-parted style, and white, cottony bristles that extend out beyond the scale. At the base of the spike is a single, erect bract about as long as or slightly shorter than the spike, scale-like with a prominent green midrib.

Leaves and stems:

Leaves are mostly basal. Stem leaves are few, near the base of the stem and have blades less than ½ inch long. Sheaths are concave at the tip. Stems are slender, 3-sided and rough-textured below the spike. Plants form loose to dense clumps and may form loose colonies. Old dead stems and basal sheaths persist to the next season.

Fruit:

Each flower produces a single achene (seed), that drops off independently of the scale, the scales usually dropping first. Achenes are 1.2 to 1.6 mm long, brown with very fine pitting on the surface, lens-shaped in cross-section, urn-shaped in outline, rounded at the tip end and tapering at the base. Surrounding the achene are 6 flat, white bristles, up to 20 times longer than the achene.

Notes:

Alpine Bulrush is a circumboreal species of wet, marly or peaty habitats, including floating mats, bogs, sedge meadows, fens and shores and is native to parts of Europe and Asia as well as the northern latitudes of North America. Trichophorum Bulrushes, with their short stature and single terminal spike, look less like other Bulrushes and more like Spikerushes (Eloecharis species), and T. alpinum with its cottony plume resembles the Cottongrasses (Eriophorum species) even more, though the Cottongrasses usually have multiple spikes per stem and 10+ bristles per achene. The single, cottony spike and slender, 3-sided, nearly leafless stems make Alpine Bulrush fairly easy to ID. While it may form dense clumps, it is not unusual to see loose colonies of more scattered, small clumps in favorable sites.