Herb, dioecious, perennial, rhizomatous, forming dense or diffuse patches to 2 m across. Rhizome stout, 2.0–5.5 mm diam.; scales brown. Cataphylls to 1 cm long. Culms numerous, terete, thin and wiry, unbranched, 20–90 cm long, 0.6–1.5 mm diam., smooth; internodes 8–13, 5.0–8.5 cm long. Sheaths closely appressed to the culm, scarious, glabrous, ribbed, light-to red-brown, 1.0–1.6 mm long, usually bearing an apical tuft of fine, whitish hairs 1–4 mm long; lamina usually absent, when present narrow-terete, erect or reflexed, up to 1 cm long; margin narrowly membranous. Inflorescence 1–11 cm long with 1–7 spikelets; spathes usually much shorter than the spikelets, 7.0–11.5 mm long, rarely shorter, all except the uppermost closely appressed, apex acute with a tuft of fine, white hairs 1.0–2.5 mm long; spikelets sessile or on short filiform pedicels to 2.5 (–4) cm long. Male spikelets ovoid to globose, 6–8 mm long; lower 3–7 glumes sterile, upper 25–45 glumes fertile, ovate, 2.5–3.0 mm long, margin with short or long hairs; awn c. 1.2 mm long. Female spikelets ovoid to narrow-ovoid, 6.5–9.0 mm long; lower 4–10 glumes sterile, upper 16–35 (–47) glumes fertile, similar to males, awn to 2.0 mm long. Male flowers: tepals 6, lanceolate to oblong, glabrous; outer tepals slightly longer than inner, 1.8–2.4 mm long; filaments 1.8–2.8 mm long; anthers exserted, 0.9–1.5 mm long. Female flowers: tepals 4, elliptic to oblong, glabrous; inner tepals slightly longer, 2.1–2.4 mm long; styles 2, very shortly united at base, recurved. Capsule compressed, 1.1–1.4 mm long. Seeds ellipsoid, smooth, brown, 0.7–0.9 mm long. Culm anatomy: epidermis with stomates not sunken, chlorenchyma of elongated peg cells, not interrupted by thick-walled cells, parenchyma sheath one or two cells thick, central cavity present.
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