Rhizome very short. Stems tufted, slender, erect, trigonous, smooth except on the angles above, 15-80 cm by 1-1.5 mm, surrounded below the leaves by the fibrous, brownish remains of old leaf-sheaths. Leaves subbasal, rarely one higher up the stem, shorter to somewhat longer than the stem, flat, scabrid, 1½-6 mm wide. Inflorescence very lax, with up to 7 spikelets, 10-40 cm long. Spikelets single at the nodes, erect or the lower cernuous, cylindric, simple or the lower 1-3 branched near the base, lax-flowered, androgynous (female part much longer than the very short male part), rarely wholly female, 1-3.5(-4.5) cm by 4-6 mm, upper approximate, sessile, or subsessile on shortly exserted peduncles, lower distant on filiform, minutely scabrid, usually long-exserted peduncles, the lowest often near the base of the stem. Lower bracts foliaceous, shorter than inflorescence, long-sheathing, upper much reduced. Glumes 3-4 mm, shorter than the utricles, ovate-lanceolate to lanceolate, acute or subtruncate to bilobed-emarginate, pale ferrugineous with whitish hyaline margins, glabrous, with darker 3-nerved central' stripe, the midnerve excurrent in a stoutish, straight, antrorsely scabrid, up to 5 mm long awn often overtopping the utricle. Utricles elliptic, compressed, biconvex, membranous, dorsally strongly 6-9-nerved, less distinctly nerved ventrally, glabrous and smooth or rarely the margins setulose, straight, obliquely erect, scarcely stipitate, pale green, fully ripe yellowish to light brown, shining, subabruptly long-beaked, 5-7 by 1.5-2 mm; beak sparsely hispid above, 2-3 mm long, deeply bidentate (teeth 1/2-3/4 mm). Nut broadly elliptic to ovate, biconvex, stipitate, abruptly beaked, 2.5-3 by 1.5-1¾ mm. Style distinctly thickened at the base, subpersistent. Stigmas 2, shorter than the utricle.
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Rhizome slightly elongate, ligneous, clothed with dark brown sheaths eventually disintegrating into fibers. Culms tufted or loosely tufted, 10-70 cm tall, rather thin, triquetrous, smooth on lower part, scabrous on upper part. Leaves basal, much shorter than culm, blades 2-4 mm wide, flat, scabrous on both surfaces and margins; sheaths less than 2 cm, usually splitting. Involucral bracts sheathed, lower involucral bracts leaflike, upper ones setaceous, uppermost 1 or 2 nearly bladeless; sheaths 0.5-4.5 cm. Spikes 3-5, single in an involucral bract sheath, remote, spaced up to 18 cm, upper spikes rather contiguous, usually not branched, androgynous, cylindric, 2-4 cm, with few male flowers on upper part, sparsely with more than 10 female flowers on lower part; lower spikes long pedunculate, upper spikes shortly pedunculate. Female glumes yellowish green, ovate-lanceolate, 3.5-5 mm, membranous, several veined, midrib slightly thick, apex acuminate, aristate, scabrous on awn. Utricles greenish, obliquely patent, longer than glume, elliptic or broadly elliptic, plano-convex, 5-6 mm, membranous, glabrous, 5-9-veined abaxially, base cuneate, apex gradually narrowed into a slightly long beak, beak ca. 2.5 mm, scabrid on margins, 2-toothed at orifice. Nutlets stramineous, tightly enveloped, broadly elliptic, compressed plano-convex, ca. 2.5 mm, base shortly stipitate; style base slightly thickened; stigmas 2. Fl. and fr. Jun-Aug.
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