Tufts stiff, spreading, yellow-green, 25–70–(100) cm. high. Culms 10–30–(45) cm. × 1–2 mm., trigonous, slightly scabrid; basal sheaths dark brown. Lvs much > culms, 3.5–5–(6) mm. wide, double-folded, coriac., margins scabrid. Spikes 4–8, the uppermost approximate, the lower 2–3 often more distant; 1–(2) terminal spikes occ. male, but more often partly or almost wholly female; remaining female spikes 1.5–4 cm. × 4–7 mm., cylindrical, sessile or shortly pedunculate. Glumes c. ⅔ length of utricles, ovate, often emarginate, brown, membr., with a pale brown midrib produced to a short scabrid awn. Utricles 3–4 × c. 1.5 mm., plano-convex to unequally biconvex, ellipsoid or obovoid, faintly nerved to distinctly ridged, pale greenish brown spotted with fine red-brown striae, slightly narrowed to a < 1 mm. long with scabrid margins and orifice. Stigmas 2. Nuts slightly < 2 mm. long, plano-convex, oblong or obovoid, dark brown.
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Yellow-green stiff tufts to 70 cm high. Leaves much > stems, double-folded. Spikes 4-8, almost all female, ± approximate, to 4 cm × ± 5 mm, greenish-brown. Glumes < utricles. Stigmas 2.