Rhizome long. Culms 15-20 cm tall, acutely trigonous, slender, scabrous above. Leaves shorter than culm, blades linear, 3-4 mm wide, flat, margins scabrous. Involucral bracts leaflike, shorter than inflorescence, sheathless. Spikes 3 or 4, approximate; terminal spike male, light brown, cylindric, 20-22 × ca. 4 mm, with peduncle 5-10 mm; lateral spikes female, oblong or cylindric, 12-20 × 6-7 mm, with peduncles 4-5 mm, upper subsessile. Female glumes dark purple-red, oblong or lanceolate, ca. 2 mm, green 3-veined costa excurrent into a mucro. Utricles longer than glume, broadly oblong or obovate, plano-convex, 2.5-3 mm, veined, base shortly stipitate, apex abruptly contracted into a very short beak, orifice emarginate or entire. Nutlets loosely enveloped, broadly elliptic, plano-convex, ca. 1.5 mm; style base not thickened; stigmas 2. Fl. and fr. Jun.