Rhizome short, obliquely ascending, woody. Culms tufted, 20-55 cm tall, slender, obtusely trigonous, clothed at base with brown sheaths disintegrating into fibers. Leaves longer than culm, blades light green, linear, 3-9 mm wide, leathery, margins scabrous. Involucral bracts shortly bladed, long sheathing. Spikes 4 or 5, distant; terminal spike usually male, rarely gynaecandrous, narrowly cylindric, 2.5-4.2 cm, peduncle 2.5-3.5 cm; lateral spikes female, usually with several male flowers at apex or base, subdensely flowered, peduncles erect, slender. Female glumes pale, oblong-lanceolate, rarely obovate-oblong, ca. 3 mm, green 3-veined costa excurrent into a scabrous long awn, apex truncate or sometimes emarginate or acuminate. Utricles yellow-green, longer than glume, obliquely patent, rhomboid or obovate, subinflated trigonous, 3-4 mm, membranous, sparsely puberulent, many veined, base gradually narrowed into a stipe, apex abruptly contracted into a beak of medium length, orifice 2-toothed. Nutlets tightly enveloped, rhomboid, trigonous, faces concave, apex abruptly contracted into a short beak, beak annulate at orifice; style base thickened; stigmas 3. Fl. and fr. Apr-Jun.
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