It is endemic to Plumas County, California, where it is known from two locations within a kilometer of each other in the Butterfly Valley Botanical Area.

[1][2] It grows in open wet habitat such as fens and meadows.

[3] This perennial spikerush grows from a tiny rhizome and a small, hard caudex.

It produces a tuft of erect stems 20 to 40 centimeters tall.

Each stem is spirally twisted and contracted near the tip, becoming somewhat flattened.