Rhizome stoloniferous. Culms 60-90 cm tall, acutely trigonous, smooth, clothed at base with brown, lustrous sheaths. Leaves shorter than culm, blades broadly linear, 6-8 mm wide, flat, stiff. Involucral bracts leaflike, surpassing inflorescence, sheathless. Spikes 4-9, narrowly cylindric, 5-10 cm, densely many flowered, upper spikes approximate, lower 1 or 2 slightly distant, with peduncles, pendent; upper 1-4 spikes gynaecandrous (rarely male at apex); remaining spikes female. Female glumes dark sanguineous, subobovate, green 3-veined costa excurrent into a scabrous awn at truncate or 2-lobed apex. Utricles yellow-green, subequaling glume, suberect, broadly ovate or subovate, plano-convex, ca. 3 mm, membranous, minutely papillose, nerveless except for 2 costas on edges, base shortly stipitate, apex abruptly contracted into a slender pale beak, orifice emarginate, often scabrous. Nutlets ovate; style erect, base not thickened; stigmas 2, rather short.
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