Herb, dioecious, rhizomatous perennial, forming dense or diffuse tussocks or patches to 50 cm across. Rhizome horizontal to c. 20 cm long or more, stout, 3–5 mm diam.; scales scarious, pale-to dark-brown, appressed, covering a pale, woolly pubescence. Culms mostly not dimorphic, at intervals of c. 0.5–1 cm on the rhizome, usually much branched, initially erect but sinuose distally, terete, 20–45 cm long, c. 1 mm diam., striate, grey-green, glabrous or the basal internode occasionally pubescent; branches short, sinuose, terete or compressed; internodes numerous, 2.5–5.5 cm long. Sheaths loosely appressed, 0.6–1.2 cm long, initially red-brown or blackish, becoming grey and weathered; apex obtuse or truncate, shortly ciliate; margins narrow, membranous; mucro 1–2 mm long. Inflorescence of 1–4 spikelets terminal on the culm or branches, or sessile at upper nodes. Male spikelets ovoid, 5–10 mm long, 3–4 mm wide. Female spikelets elliptic to ovoid, 6–8 mm long, 3.0–4.0 mm wide. Male glumes: lower 5–12 sterile; upper 15–18 fertile, broad-ovate, mostly glabrous, brown, acute, 3.0–4.0 mm long; mucro 1–1.7 mm long. Female glumes: lower 11–21 sterile, upper 2 or 3 fertile, similar to males, obtuse to acute, 2.5–4.5 mm long. Male flowers: tepals 5 or 6, pale brown, membranous, 2.5–3.0 mm long; outer tepals keeled, pubescent; inner tepals flat, narrow-lanceolate, acute; stamens 3; filaments stout, basally dilated and spongy, 3.0–4.0 mm long; anthers c. 1.5–2 mm long. Female flowers: tepals 5, brown, lanceolate, 4.0–5.7 mm long; 2 outer tepals keeled, pubescent; inner tepals flat; styles 2, bases connate. Capsule 2.2–2.8 mm long, smooth, brown. Seed ovoid, c. 2 mm long, with prominent longitudinal ridges. Culm anatomy: chlorenchyma interrupted by pillar cells.
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