Rhizome short, stout, woody, clothed with some brown bladeless sheaths or their fibrous remains. Stems central, erect, scapiform, trigonous or sub-terete, smooth, or scabrid on the angles, (5-)20-40 cm by 1-2 mm, the base enveloped by some brown, infundibuliform, up to 10 cm long sheaths. Leaves overtopping the stems, broadly linear, conduplicate below (narrowed into a pseudo-petiole), otherwise flat, long-acuminate, minutely scabrid on the margins in the upper part, with the midnerve and 2 mid-lateral nerves prominent, 1.5-3.5 cm wide; ligule elongate-triangular, brown-bordered, 1.5-2 cm long. Inflorescence paniculate, consisting of (2-)3-7 partial inflorescences, up to 25 cm long; partial inflorescences erect, oblong-ovoid, very dense, head-like, upper approximate, lower distant, single at the nodes, with hispid rachis, 2-3½ by 1-2.5 cm, on exserted, smooth or finely scabrid peduncles. Bracts sheathlike, ampliate, infundibuliform, short-bladed, light brown or spadiceous. Spikelets densely crowded, androgynous, ovoid, patent, 6-10 by 5-8 mm, the male part usually much longer than the few-flowered female part. Glumes thinly membranous, oblong-ovate, obtuse to truncate-bilobed, many-nerved, glabrous or hispidulous, pale brown with broad, whitish hyaline margins, 2-4 mm long, the midnerve excurrent in a 1-4 mm long, scabrous, often recurved awn. Utricles trigonous, ellipsoid, with shallowly concave faces, patulous, glabrous at the base, hispidulous above, shortly stipitate, strongly 6-8-nerved on each face, stramineous to brown, 6-7 by 1.5-1.8 mm (the long beak included); beak hispidulous, curved, bulbous at the base (to hold thickened style-base), nearly linear above, with very oblique mouth (its base 1.5-1¾ mm from the apex), 3-372 mm long. Nut trigonous, ellipsoid or slightly obovoid, scarcely stipitate, shortly beaked and suddenly expanded into the conical style-base, dark brown with pale angles, 2.5-2¾ by 1.5-1¾ mm. Style-base pyramidally thickened, subpersistent on the nut. Stigmas 3.
Home