Rhizome very short, stout, woody. Stems loosely tufted, obtusely trigonous, smooth, 50-100 cm by 2-4 mm, the base clothed with fuscous, bladeless sheaths and comose by their fibrous, fuscous to blackish remains. Leaves herbaceous, subbasal and a few higher on the stem, exceeding the stems, linear, long-attenuate, flat or with revolute margins, greyish-glaucescent, scabrid on the margins in the upper part, 5-15 mm wide. Inflorescence a pale, decompound, erect, much interrupted, 20-40 cm long panicle; secondary panicles 5-8, single at the nodes, erect, oblong-ovoid, loose, distant, up to 10 cm long; peduncles smooth below, scabrid above, the lower much exserted from the sheaths, upper shortly; rachis hispid on the angles. Spikelets androgynous, widely patent, finally almost squar-rose, sessile, 5-15 mm long, the male part shorter than to about as long as the female part. Glumes ovate, obtuse (the lower ones truncate to emarginate), membranous, glabrous or sparsely hispidulous, not ciliate, slenderly nerved, whitish, 1.5-2 by 1-1.5 mm, the midnerve excurrent in an antrorsely scabrid, curved, 1-3 mm long awn. Utricles distinctly trigonous, rhomboid, with prominent angles and flat faces, membranous, not inflated, strongly many-nerved (nerves c. 5-7 on each face), glabrous, patent, arcuately recurved, gradually tapering to the base, suddenly narrowed above into the beak, olive-brown, 3.5-4.5 by 1-1.25 mm; beak strongly recurved, smooth or very sparsely scabrid, 1.5-2 mm long; mouth dorsally very oblique, not bidentate. Nut trigonous, rhomboid-ellipsoid, erostrate, dark brown with prominent pale angles, 2-2.25 by 1-1.2 mm. Style-base pyramidally thickened at the base. Stigmas 3.
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