Herb, dioecious, perennial, rhizomatous, forming diffuse to moderately dense patches 0.3–1 m across. Rhizome 3–6 mm diam., scales broad-deltoid, brown, scarious, covering a woolly pubescence. Culms terete, simple, 0.5–1.0 mm diam., 30–50 cm long, minutely striate, pale-to grey-green, covered by pale, appressed, fan hairs; internodes 4–7 cm long. Sheaths 6–12 mm long, brown; apex acute to mucronate; lamina minute, blunt, membranous margin narrow. Inflorescence: males terminal, short, to 3 cm long, the spikelets erect or drooping on short filiform pedicels, the pedicels whitish with a minute tomentum; females crowded in compact fascicles, the fascicles solitary and terminal or several at the uppermost nodes. Male spikelets ovoid to ellipsoid, 5–8 mm long, 2–5 mm diam., with c. 10–20 glumes; glumes all fertile, ovate, 4.2–6.6 mm long, brown, glabrous, acute to mucronate; mucro short, c. 1 mm long, erect; membranous margins indistinct or absent. Female fascicles ovoid, 5–6 mm long, spathes broad-ovate, 5–7 mm long, coriaceous, brown, mucronate; mucro short, blunt; glumes obovate, 3–4 mm long, apical margin glabrous to ciliate, mucronate with a short, erect mucro c. 0.5 mm long. Male flowers shortly pedicellate, floral parts attached to a disc-like receptacle; tepals 5, narrow-lanceolate, hyaline, glabrous; 2 outer tepals keeled, 2.0–2.4 mm long; inner tepals linear to filiform, shorter, often much reduced; stamens 3; filaments 0.5–0.8 mm long; anthers 1.8–2.0 mm long. Female flowers pedicellate, the pedicel base with a tuft of short white hairs; tepals 6, 2.8–3.5 mm long, brown, rigid, margin serrate-ciliate/fimbriate; outer tepals lanceolate, keeled, the apex tapering into a short erect mucro; inner tepals lanceolate, acute to acuminate, slightly keeled to flat; style 3-branched, connate toward the base, the base persistent on the nut. Nut trigonous, 1.5–2.0 mm long, glossy-brown, smooth. Culm anatomy: chlorenchyma of short cells, interrupted by pillar cells opposite the outer vascular bundles.
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