Rhizome stoloniferous. Culms 30-70 cm tall, triquetrous, scabrous on upper part, clothed with red-brown sheaths at base. Leaves shorter than culm, blades 3-4 mm wide, slightly stiff, sheathed. Involucral bracts leaflike, longer than spike, usually not sheathed or lowermost involucral bract shortly sheathed. Spikes 4-6; terminal 2 or 3 spikes male, linear, 2-4 cm, nearly sessile; remaining spikes female, remote, oblong or ovate, 2-4 × ca. 1 cm, densely many flowered at upper part and laxly flowered at base, shortly pedunculate. Female glumes ferruginous, ovate-lanceolate, ca. 3.5 mm, 1-3-veined, margins white hyaline, apex acuminate, muticous. Utricles yellowish green, sometimes brownish, obliquely patent, longer than glumes, ovate, inflated trigonous, ca. 5 mm, papery, glabrous, 3-5-veined abaxially, base rounded, apex abruptly contracted into a medium-sized beak, orifice shortly 2-toothed, teeth slightly recurved. Nutlets very loosely enveloped, subovate, trigonous, ca. 1.5 mm; style slender, flexuose at lower part, base not thickened; stigmas 3, rather short. Fl. and fr. Jun-Aug.