Herb, dioecious, rhizomatous, perennial, forming large patches of closely spaced culms 30 cm or more across. Rhizome horizontal creeping, 2–8 mm diam.; scales tan-brown. Cataphylls appressed, tan-brown, 0.5–2 cm long. Culms not dimorphic, terete, smooth or slightly striate, 10–50 cm long, rarely taller, 0.6–1.5 mm diam., unbranched or rarely with few, short, flattened, fertile branches; internodes 7–10, rarely fewer, up to c. 9 cm long. Sheaths lax, open and spreading, oblong to obovate, 0.5–2 cm long; smooth or striate, glabrous, red-to pale-brown; apex truncate with a tuft of short white hairs; lamina mostly absent. Inflorescence a solitary, terminal spikelet or less often up to 6 spikelets at the upper nodes; spathes 0.2–0.5 cm long. Male spikelets ovoid, 6–8 mm long. Female spikelets ovoid, c. 7 mm long. Male glumes: 6–12, upper c. 6 fertile, oblong to ovate, obtuse to acute, 3.6–5.2 mm long, ciliate or occasionally with hairs on the abaxial surface, brown; mucro absent. Female glumes usually few, rarely up to 18, lower c. 4–7 glumes sterile, similar to males. Male flowers: tepals lanceolate to oblong, glabrous; outer tepals longer, 3.5–4.5 mm long; filaments 3.2–4.1 mm long; anthers 2.2–2.6 mm long. Female flowers: tepals similar to males; outer tepals slightly longer, 3.7–4.7 mm long. Capsule globoid, 2.2–3.4 mm long, often oblique by abortion of one loculus. Seeds oblong, light brown, c. 2.0–2.2 mm long, colliculate with lines of convex cells, with a fine network of narrow ridges between the convex cells. Culm anatomy: chlorenchyma of 2–3 layers of elongated cells, not interrupted.
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