Rhizome woody, rigid. Culms 20-40 cm tall, glabrous, clothed at base with dark brown sheaths disintegrating into fibers. Leaves surpassing culm, blades linear, 7-10 mm wide, apex acuminate. Involucral bracts shortly bladed, long sheathing. Spikes 3 or 4, distant; terminal spike male, cylindric, 3-4.5 × 0.3-0.4 cm, long pedunculate; lateral spikes androgynous, male part ca. 1/3 length of female part, cylindric, 2.5-4.3 cm, densely flowered; peduncles smooth. Female glumes red-brown, ovate-lanceolate, margins pale hyaline, green 3-veined costa excurrent into a mucro. Utricles dark green, longer than glume, obliquely patent, elliptic, 5-6 mm, membranous, slender, glabrous, many veined, base truncate, apex abruptly contracted into a scabrous long beak, orifice 2-toothed. Nutlets pale brown, loosely enveloped, rhomboid, trigonous, 2.5-3 mm, not constricted on angles, faces concave at base, base curved stipitate, apex abruptly contracted into a curved beak ca. 1 mm; style base slightly thickened; stigmas 3.