Rhizome short. Culms 15-40 cm tall, slender, trigonous. Basal sheath dark brown, split into fibers. Leaves longer than culm, blades 1-2 mm wide, leathery, margins scabrid, revolute, apex acuminate. Involucral bract bristlelike, longer than inflorescence, 2.5-3 cm, shortly sheathed ca. 1.5 mm. Spikes 2; terminal spike male, pale yellow, ovate-clavate, 7-10 mm, with peduncle 5-12 mm; lateral spike androgynous, oblong-ovate or suborbicular, 7-12 × 5-8 mm, densely flowered, subsessile. Female glumes pale yellow, oblong, ca. 2 × 1 mm, midvein distinct, apex obtuse. Utricle stramineous, longer than glume, ovate-lanceolate, 3.5-3.8 mm, membranous, densely puberulent, many veined, base attenuate, apex attenuate into a beak, orifice 2-toothed. Nutlet chestnut-colored, loosely enveloped, oblong, trigonous, apex discoid-annulate; style base thickened; stigmas 3. Fl. and fr. Aug.