Herb, perennial, dioecious, rhizomatous, forming dense tangled masses of culms and rhizomes, arising from a glabrous caespitose base. Culms numerous and crowded on the rhizome, erect, 1 (–4) m long, often stout and up to 2.5 mm diam. towards the base; slender, wiry and c. 0.3–1.0 mm diam. above, flexuose, twining or sinuous, much-branched, terete to slightly compressed or sometimes furrowed, substriate to subrugose or occasionally smooth, pale green. Sheaths and floral bracts persistent, imbricate; basal sheaths often glossy red-brown; cauline sheaths initially green and closely appressed to the culm, becoming lax and brown or grey with age, smooth or striate or sometimes slightly rough with minute black raised dots, 0.5–2.5 (–3.5) cm long, the base of the sheath with a dark brown to black band; lamina linear, to 10 mm long, patent or reflexed. Male spikelets cylindrical or narrow-ovoid, 3.0–4.5 mm long; glumes 1.5–2.7 mm long, hyaline to pale brown. Female spikelets 4.5–9.0 mm long, axillary and terminal on branchlets up to 6 cm long; glumes 2.7–6.8 mm long, pale brown, membranous or rigid; apex subulate. Male flowers: outer tepals 1.6–3.5 mm long, ± flat; inner tepals (1.6–) 2.7–4.5 mm long, concave; anthers 1.3–2.4 mm long. Female flowers: outer tepals 3.3–5.3 mm long; inner tepals 3.5–5.5 mm long; styles 3, free, wholly stigmatic. Nut hard and woody, globular, 2.3–3.4 mm long, brown to black, striate in the upper half, with a very short pale stipe and a short truncate beak. Seed c. 2 mm long, brown. Culm anatomy: chlorenchyma of horizontal plates of 2 or 3 ranks of short cells, separated from other plates by substomatal cavities, pillar cells absent, substomatal protective cells present, central cavity absent.
Dense shrub-swamps, horizontal scrub (Anodopetalum biglandulosum), sphagnum bogs, sedge swamps, button-grass (Gymnoschoenus sphaerocephalus) moorland and river banks on sands and peat.
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