Rhizome shortly creeping, woody, covered with the fibrous remains of decayed sheaths. Stems loosely tufted, stiff, trigonous, smooth, 30-150 cm by 2-3 mm, surrounded below the leaves by bladeless, reddish or fuscous sheaths and their fibrous, often reticulate remains. Leaves coriaceous, basal and 1-2 higher on the stem, usually much shorter than the stems, narrow, long-attenuate, keeled, with strongly revolute margins when dry, scabrous on the margins, often vesiculose-asperous above especially towards the apex, 2-8 mm wide. Inflorescence a decompound, interrupted, ferrugineous, 15-40 cm long panicle; secondary panicles 5-10, at 4-6 nodes, lowest 1-2 often single, remainder usually unequally binate, erect, often with nodding top, oblong-pyramidal, dense or very dense, rarely loose, up to 10 by 5 cm, upper ones approximate, lower distant on exserted, smooth or scabrid, up to 15 cm long peduncles; rachis hispidulous on the angles. Lower bracts foliaceous, narrow, shorter than the inflorescence, long-sheathing, the upper ones much reduced; bracteoles pilose, excurrent in a curved, hispidulous awn. Spikelets numerous, androgynous, obliquely patent, 5-15 mm long, the male part in the longer spikelets much longer than the few-flowered female part. Glumes lanceolate-ovate, acutish, sometimes lightly emarginate, membranous, translucent, glabrous or somewhat hispidulous, ferrugineous or castaneous, 2.5-4.5 mm long, the midnerve in the upper glumes excurrent in a hispid, up to 1¾ mm long awn. Utricles triquetrous, narrowly ellipsoid, subcoriaceous, not inflated, obliquely erect, straight or but slightly recurved, slenderly or obscurely nerved, rather densely setulose in the upper ¾, scarcely stipitate, rather abruptly beaked, reddish with castaneous flecks, 3-5 by 1-1¾ mm; beak slender, scabrid on the margins, mouth not oblique, 1.25-2 mm long. Nut triquetrous, ellipsoid or slightly obovoid, with concave faces, shortly stipitate, abruptly beaked, 1.5-2.5 by 1-1.5 mm. Style-base scarcely thickened. Stigmas 3.
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