Rhizome shortly creeping, woody, covered with brown, readily fraying scales. Stems tufted, slender, triquetrous, very narrowly winged above, smooth below, slightly scabrid on the angles above, up to 50 cm by 1-1.5 mm. Leaves basal and subbasal shorter to longer than the stems, stiff, strongly revolute when dry, long-attenuate, greyish green or glaucous, scabrous-asperous in the apical part, 2-6 mm wide; sheaths brown, membranous in front, outer ones bladeless. Inflorescence racemiform, consisting of 1-4 remote, subglobose or pyramidal heads on short (the lowest rather long), smooth or scabrid peduncles, each head composed of 1-4 crowded, sessile spikelets. Lower bracts foliaceous, much exceeding the inflorescence, not auricled, not or lowest very shortly sheathing, ultimately horizontally spreading, upper much reduced. Spikelets androgynous, the male part about as long as or longer than the female, ovoid, patent, 5-10 mm long and wide. Glumes broadly ovate to oblong-ovate, obtuse, membranous, strongly nerved, ciliolate above, otherwise glabrous, white or light brown, 2¼-3 mm long, the midnerve excurrent in a stoutish, scabrid, ½-1 mm long awn. Utricles trigonous, rhomboid or obovoid, membranous, suberect or patulous, strongly many-nerved, rather abruptly contracted into the beak, glabrous, narrowly marginate or winged, scabrid on the margins at the apex, stramineous, 4-6¾ by 1.8-2.25 mm; beak linear-conical, flattened, curved inwards, bidenticulate, with oblique mouth 1-2 mm long. Nut triquetrous, pyriform, scarcely stipitate, brown but densely overlain white-scurfy, 2-2¼ by 1¾ mm. Style-base pyramidally thickened, persistent on the nut. Stigmas 3.
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