Rhizome stoloniferous. Culms 30-60 cm tall, slender, acutely trigonous, scabrous above, pendent, clothed at base with purple-red bladeless sheaths disintegrating into reticulate fibers. Leaves subequaling culm, blades linear, 2-3 mm wide, flat, margins scabrous. Lower involucral bracts leaflike, sheathless. Spikes 3-5, oblong-cylindric, 10-20 × ca. 6 mm, densely many flowered, upper ones approximate, subsessile, lowest one remote, with long peduncle; terminal spike gynaecandrous or merely male, clavate; lateral spikes female. Female glumes dark purple-red, lanceolate-ovate, 1-veined costa excurrent into a long awn. Utricles stramineous-green, longer than glume, elliptic, trigonous, 3.5-4 mm, suberect, membranous, glabrous, densely punctate, many veined, base gradually narrowed, apex abruptly contracted into a slender, curved, slightly scabrous long beak, orifice purple-red, 2-toothed. Nutlets ovate, base shortly stipitate; style base tortuous, not thickened; stigmas 3.
Home