Luzula multiflora is a perennial rush, 20-40 cm tall, densely clumped, often reddish in bloom, long-hairy.
Leaves: basal leaves several, stem leaves 2-3, blades flat, about 10 cm long, 0.2-0.6 cm wide, hairy at base and margins, tip slender.
Flowers in small, dense clusters of 7-15, petals lance-shaped, about 0.3 cm long, brown, inflorescence bracts shorter than inflorescence, April-May.
Fruit capsule shorter than petals about 0.1 cm long, May-June,
Wetland status: FAC.
Frequency in NYC: Occasional.
Origin: Native.
Habitat: Open, upland woods.
Notes: Found in soil pH 5.2 (Gargiullo unpublished data). Seeds have an oily attachment (elaiosome) attractive to ants which eat the attachment and disperse seeds in nest waste piles (Handel 1978).