A striking plant with stems that have strongly marked black stripes on the sheaths. Plants may grow densely packed together, producing colonies of shoots from branching rhizomes, and may reach more than 1.5 metres in height. The stems are hollow.

This is a rare plant in our area.  Photographs are required showing the plants in situ and also a close up image of the sheaths.  It is on the VC55 Rare Plant Register, and therefore a specimen should not be taken.  Take detailed field photos and submit to NatureSpot as soon as possible; and if you think you have found it in a new location, inform the County Recorder as soon you can. (RPR)

It prefers heavy soils derived from sand or clay which are permanently moist and have a high mineral and silica content. It is usually found in shaded open woodland beside streams and rivers, but also grows in base-rich moorland flushes and sand dunes.

All year round.

Evergreen perennial.

Widespread, but infrequent in Britain.

Rare and very local in Leicestershire and Rutland, known from only one location, where is appears well-established. 

It was present in 1 tetrad in the Flora of Leicestershire (Primavesi and Evans 1988), and not at all in the Flora of Rutland (Messenger 1971).

It is listed on the current VC55 Rare Plant Register (Hall and Woodward 2022) as Locally Rare (i.e. present in less than 3 sites)