Herb, dioecious, perennial, rhizomatous, forming erect dense tussocks. Rhizome shortly horizontal, 3–5 mm diam. with short crowded branches 0.5–2.0 cm long; scales brown. Cataphylls 0.5–1 cm long, similar to sheaths but shorter. Culms closely spaced, terete, unbranched, smooth or slightly ribbed, 35–100 cm long, 0.8–1.6 (–2) mm diam.; internodes several, up to 15 cm long. Sheaths appressed, scarious, ribbed, obtuse to acuminate, usually glabrous, to 3.0 cm long; lamina absent. Inflorescence terminal, erect, narrow, 4–13 cm long, with 4–12 spikelets or occasionally more. Spathes 1–2.5 cm long, 2–4 mm wide, tapering gradually to the apex, often exceeding the lowest spikelet and usually with white axillary hairs. Male spikelets ellipsoid to globose, c. 5–10 mm long, usually on filiform pedicels to 3 cm long; glumes 15–35, all fertile or the lower 1 or 2 glumes sterile, narrow elliptic to elliptic, 2.6–3.0 mm long, margin with fine hairs; awn slender, 1.1–1.6 mm long. Female spikelets oblong-cylindrical, rarely ovate, 6–16 mm long, mostly shortly pedicellate or nearly sessile; lower 1–5 glumes sterile; upper 13–24 (–34) glumes fertile, lanceolate to broad-ovate, 3.3–6.0 mm long, margin with fine hairs; awn slender, 1.0–3.0 mm long, erect or usually recurved. Male flowers: tepals 6, hyaline, oblong to lanceolate, acute to mucronate, glabrous or with a few short apical cilia; outer tepals slightly longer than inner, 2.0–2.5 mm long; filaments 2.3–3.0 mm long; anthers exserted, 1.2–1.3 mm long. Female flowers: tepals 4, hyaline, linear-lanceolate, glabrous; inner tepals slightly longer than outer, 2.6–3.0 mm long; styles 2, very shortly united at base, recurved. Capsule spherical to ellipsoid, 1.2–1.4 mm long. Seeds ellipsoid, smooth, brown, c. 0.9 mm long. Cluster roots present. Culm anatomy: epidermis with stomates not sunken, chlorenchyma of elongated peg cells, not interrupted by thick-walled cells, parenchyma sheath one cell thick, central cavity present.
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