Rhizome horizontal. Culms (3-)7-16 cm tall, slender, erect, smooth, clothed at base with brown sheaths. Leaves equaling or slightly longer or shorter than culm, blades linear, plicate, filiform, ca. 1 mm wide, glabrous. Lower involucral bracts leaflike, shorter than inflorescence, sheathing, brown. Spikes (2 or)3(or 4), slightly distant; terminal spike male, 1-1.5 × ca. 0.3 cm; remaining spikes female, oblong, 0.8-1.5 × ca. 0.3 cm, sessile. Female glumes dark purple-brown, ovate, 4-5 mm, 1-veined, margins hyaline. Utricles purple above, green below, lanceolate, trigonous, 3.5-4 mm, nerveless, margins slightly scabrous, apex long beaked, orifice 2-toothed; stigmas 3. Fl. and fr. Jun-Aug.
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