Rhizome woody, slightly oblique, roots thick and rigid. Culms 30-40 cm tall, slender, trigonous, slightly scabrous, clothed at base with dark brown sheaths disintegrating into fibers. Leaves longer than culm, blades glaucous green, broadly linear, 5-9 mm wide, flat, leathery. Involucral bracts leaflike, much longer than subtending spike, sheathing. Spikes 4 or 5; terminal spike male, linear, 2-3 cm, sessile; lateral spikes female, cylindric, 2-3.5 cm, slightly loosely flowered, uppermost one contiguous to male spike, subsessile, remaining spikes slightly distant, shortly pedunculate. Female glumes pale green, ovate, 5-6 mm, green 3-veined costa excurrent into a mucro. Utricles yellow-green, longer than or subequaling glume, rhomboid, inflated trigonous, 5.5-6 mm, leathery, slightly pubescent when young, later glabrous, slightly shiny, many veined, base attenuate, apex abruptly contracted into a cylindric, smooth, long beak, orifice 2-toothed. Nutlets tightly enveloped, ovate, trigonous, curved, faces concave at base, base shortly stipitate, apex abruptly contracted into a cylindric curved beak, beak annulate at orifice; style slightly thickened; stigmas 3. Fl. and fr. Mar-Apr.
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