Rhizome short, stout, woody. Stems slender, loosely tufted, erect, trigonous, smooth, (20-)50-150 cm by up to 4 mm at the base, clothed at the base with fuscous to purplish sheaths or their fibrous, reticulate remains. Leaves mainly subbasal, a few widely spaced on the stem, equalling or exceeding the inflorescence, long-attenuate, coriaceous, flat or with revolute margins, asperous on the upper surface in the upper part, with scabrous margins, (2-)5-10 mm wide; sheaths long, often reddish, frayed in front into reticulate fibres. Inflorescence from almost simple to decompound, narrow, (10-)25-100 cm long, erect or somewhat nodding at the top; secondary panicles 5-9, single at the nodes, upper approximate, lower distant on exserted, more or less scabrid peduncles, sometimes all reduced to simple spikelets. Lower bracts foliaceous, long-sheathing, exceeding the stem, upper much reduced. Spikelets androgynous, sub-erect to patulous, the longer ones on a plant 3 to 10 cm long, male and female parts often about equal in length, but sometimes the terminal spikelet almost wholly male and some of the lateral almost wholly female. Glumes oblong or oblong-ovate, acute to obtuse, glabrous, or sparsely hispidulous, slenderly nerved, pale to castaneous, with whitish-hyaline margins, 2.5-4 mm long, the midrib usually excurrent in a hispidulous awn up to 2 (rarely 3) mm long. Utricles trigonous, ellipsoid or ellipsoid-obovoid, patulous, membranous, slenderly nerved, sparsely to subdensely hispidulous at least towards the apex, straight or slightly bent, pale to castaneous, 3-4.5 mm long, subgradually to subabruptly narrowed into a hispidulous-margined, bidentate, ¾-1 mm long beak. Nut triquetrous, ellipsoid, oblong-ellipsoid, or slightly obovoid, with flattish to slightly concave sides, dark brown, abruptly beaked, 2-3 mm long; stipe and beak straight to bent at the base. Style-base not thickened. Stigmas 3.
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Rhizome woody. Culms tufted, robust, 80-120 × ca. 0.3 cm, trigonous, scabrid, leafy below middle. Leaves longer than culms, flat, 5-7 mm wide, glabrous abaxially, scabrid adaxially; basal persistent leaf sheaths dark brown, fibriform. Involucral bracts leafy, longer than inflorescence, long sheathed. Panicle compound, 20-30 cm, 3-6-branched; inflorescence branches racemose, single, 5-8 cm, 2-4-spiked; peduncles of inflorescence branches tenuous, 3-11 cm; inflorescence axes triquetrous, scabrid; bractlets glumelike. Spikes single, bisexual and androgynous, cylindric, 20-60 × 3.5-4.5 mm; male part of spike 1/4-1/2 length of or very rarely equaling female part; female part with dense and numerous flowers; male glumes pale green, oblong-lanceolate, 3.5-4 mm, membranous; female glumes green or pale green at middle and pale brown laterally, oblong, 2.5-3 mm, papery, with 1 scabrid midrib, upper margin hyaline, apex acuminate, shortly awned. Utricles pale green, longer than glumes, obovate-lanceolate, trigonous, 4-4.5 mm, papery, with several fine veins, glabrous or lateral keels hairy, base attenuate, subsessile, apex shortly beaked, beak 1/5-1/4 length of utricle, orifice minutely 2-toothed. Nutlet dark brown at maturity, closely enclosed in utricle, elliptic, trigonous, base shortly stipitate, apex nearly not apiculate; style base slightly thickened; stigmas 3.
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