Rhizome obliquely ascending. Culms tufted, 20-65 cm tall, slender, obtusely trigonous. Basal sheaths dark brown, split into fibers. Leaves longer than culm, blades 2-5 mm wide, flat, margins scabrid. Involucral bracts shortly leafy, shorter than subtending spike, long sheathed, lowest sheath 1.5-3 mm. Spikes 3-5, spaced; terminal spike male, clavate-cylindric, 12-40 × 3-5 mm, with peduncle 2.5-5.5 cm; lateral spikes female, cylindric, 12-40 × 3-6 mm, densely flowered; peduncle erect, lowest one exserted, upper ones enclosed in involucral bract sheath. Female glumes pale yellowish white, oblong, 2.5-3 mm, green costa 3-veined, excurrent into a scabrid awn 2.5-3 mm, apex truncate or emarginate. Utricles green, obovate-elliptic or elliptic, trigonous, ca. 3 mm, membranous, puberulent, many veined, base abruptly contracted into a very short stipe ca. 0.5 mm, apex abruptly contracted and nearly beakless, orifice truncate. Nutlet tightly enveloped, obovate, trigonous, ca. 2 mm, with faces excavated in lower part, apex abruptly contracted into an annulus; style base slightly thickened; stigmas 3. Fl. and fr. Apr-Jun.