Herb, dioecious, caespitose, perennial, forming small or large dense tussocks to 25 cm across at base, the base with a dense white woolly pubescence. Cataphylls appressed, tan-brown, 1–2 cm long. Culms mostly not dimorphic, densely crowded on very short rhizomes, branched, erect or ascending, terete, 40–80 (–120) cm long, 1.5–2.3 mm diam. near the base, striate, pubescent with short appressed hairs; branches mostly flexuose; internodes several, 4.5–9.0 cm long; vegetative culms when present short, slender, branched, sinuous. Sheaths lax, open, flaring from the base, 0.6–1.9 cm long, scarious, smooth to striate, dark tan, glabrous, obtuse to truncate, lamina c. 1–1.8 mm long. Inflorescence with long (to 15 cm), spreading lower branches and short upper branches, spikelets numerous; males mostly pendulous on short, filiform pedicels; females erect. Male spikelets narrow-ovoid, 7–10 mm long, 3–4 mm wide. Female spikelets ovoid to globoid, shorter than males. Male glumes: lower 15–21 sterile; upper 10–16 fertile, lanceolate, brown, usually glabrous, acuminate, 2.5–7.5 mm long; mucro 0.5–0.9 mm long. Female glumes: lower 6–13 sterile; upper 1–3 (–11) fertile, similar to males, broad-lanceolate, 2–5 mm long; mucro c. 1 mm long. Male flowers: tepals 5, linear, membranous; outer tepals keeled, c. 3.5 mm long, sparsely pubescent; inner tepals slightly shorter, flat, glabrous; stamens 3; filaments 3.0–4.5 mm long; anthers 2.0–2.4 mm long, not exserted. Female flowers: tepals 5, narrow lanceolate, rigid, acute; outer tepals keeled, c. 3.5 mm long, sparsely pubescent; inner tepals slightly shorter, flat, glabrous; styles 2, mostly free, half-stigmatic. Capsule compressed, 2.0–2.5 mm long. Seed globose, c. 1.3 mm long, colliculate with lines of convex cells and a network of narrow ridges. Culm anatomy: chlorenchyma interrupted by pillar cells.
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