Herb, evergreen, dioecious, perennial, forming large dense clumps to 0.5– across. Rhizome horizontal, stout, to 15 cm long, 5–14 mm diam., covered by weathered leaf bases and imbricate scales. Leaves linear, 30–70 cm long; sheathing base 7–17 cm long, the margins membranous; lamina thick, rigid, somewhat yellowish green, the margins scabrid. Flowering stems erect, compressed, 30–100 (–135) cm long, 5–10 mm wide, the margins smooth or scabrous. Inflorescences erect, 7.5–25 cm long, the males with erect or spreading branches and up to >200 flowers on contorted pedicels; the females narrow, with up to 40 shortly pedicellate flowers on erect branches. Spathe subtending the inflorescence caducous, leaf-like, with a sheathing base and a short equitant lamina. Uppermost bracts small, hyaline, scale-like. Male flowers: tepals 6, narrow lanceolate, 5–7 mm long, scarious-membranous, red-brown, acute or acuminate; outer tepals keeled; inner tepals flat; filaments c. 2 mm long; anthers exserted, c. 2.5–3.0 mm long. Female flowers: tepals 6, rigid, narrow deltoid; outer tepals 10–12 mm long; inner tepals 6–8 mm long; style branches 3, stout, straight, exceeding tepals. Capsule 4.5–5.5 mm long, 6–6.5 mm broad. Seeds with a pattern of convex cells marked by low longitudinal ridges.
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