Herb, dioecious, rhizomatous, perennial, forming patches of culms to 50 cm across. Rhizome horizontal creeping, pubescent, 1.5–4.0 mm diam.; scales pale brown. Cataphylls appressed, red-brown, acute, 0.5–3 cm long. Culms not dimorphic, flattened, often with a longitudinal furrow, smooth or slightly striate when dry, unbranched, 6–30 (–50) cm long, 0.8–1.3 mm diam.; internodes 2 or less often 3, up to c. 15 cm long; upper internode shorter and more slender than lower internode. Sheaths mostly 1 per culm, red-brown, ribbed, loose, often reflexed, usually glabrous, 3–11 (–23) mm long; lamina terete, narrow, caducous, c. 1–3 mm long. Inflorescence a solitary, terminal spikelet; spathe c. 1–3 mm long, caducous. Male spikelet ovoid to ellipsoid, 7–9 mm long. Female spikelet ovoid to globose, 7.5–9.5 mm long. Male glumes: lower 10–20 sterile, upper 14–17 fertile, ovate to broad ovate, acute, glabrous, dark-brown, 3.6–4.2 mm long; mucro absent. Female glumes: lower 8–17 sterile, upper 7–15 fertile, similar to males, 1.5–4.5 mm long. Male flowers: tepals lanceolate to oblong, glabrous; outer tepals longer, 2.2–2.8 mm long; filaments 2.7–3.0 mm long; anthers 1.5–1.7 mm long. Female flowers: tepals similar to males, 2.3–2.7 mm long; style 2-branched. Capsule globose but often oblique by abortion of 1 locule, c. 1.2 mm long. Seeds ellipsoid, brown with longitudinal lines of convex cells, c. 1.1 mm long. Culm anatomy: chlorenchyma of 2 or 3 layers of elongated cells, not interrupted.
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