Perennial with very short rhizome. Stems slender to robust, tufted, trigonous, smooth, 50-100(-150) cm by up to 8 mm. Leaves canaliculate, coriaceous, scabrous on the margins, pale green beneath, 5-10(-15) mm wide; lower sheaths somewhat spongy, stramineous to purplish black. Inflorescence compound or subdecompound, up to 20 cm long and wide. Involucral bracts 3-5, obliquely erect to patent, up to 65 cm long. Primary rays 6-8, unequal, stiff, smooth, up to 15 cm; secondary rays usually very short, rarely up to 3 cm. Spikes digitately arranged, cylindric, very dense (usually 60-70 spike-lets to the spike), sessile or subsessile (rarely 2-3 cm peduncled), 2-3 cm by 5-10 mm; rachis glabrous, narrowly winged, hidden by the spikelets or almost so. Spikelets spicately arranged, suberect, rarely obliquely erect, oblong to oblong-linear, imbricate, compressed, 6-20(-30)-flowered, 4-6 by finally up to 2 mm; rachilla straight, persistent; internodes 1/5-¼ mm; wings narrow, oblong, whitish hyaline, long-persistent. Glumes membranous, at first appressed, finally obliquely patent, ovate to broadly ovate, obtuse, mucronate, without mucro 1-1½ by c. 1 mm, ½-¾ imbricate; keel green, faintly 3-nerved, sides fulvous to spadiceous, nerveless. Stamens 3; anthers oblong, c. ⅓ mm; connective shortly produced, smooth. Stigmas 3. Nut trigonous, slightly compressed dorsoventrally, ovoid to ellipsoid, shortly apiculate, yellowish brown, 0.6-0.8 by 0.4 mm.
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Perennials. Rhizomes short. Roots many, fibrous. Culms 7-15 cm tall, stout, obtusely 3-angled, smooth, basally clothed by several leaf sheaths. Leaves basal, shorter than culm; sheath reddish brown to dark brown, long; leaf blade 0.5-1.5 cm wide, basally folded, apically flat. Involucral bracts 3-5, leaflike, longer than inflorescence. Inflorescence a compound anthela; rays 6-10, to 16 cm, unequal in length, each with 3-10 raylets; raylets radially spreading. Spikes 3-6 fasciculate at apex of raylet, sessile or subsessile, densely arranged, cylindric, 1.5-4 × 0.6-1.4 cm, with many spikelets. Spikelets in several rows, narrowly ovoid to narrowly oblong-ovoid, 4-12 × 1.5-2 mm, slightly compressed, obliquely spreading, 8-30-flowered; rachilla wings white, narrow, hyaline, persistent; successive glumes 0.4-0.5 mm apart. Glumes brownish yellow to straw-colored, densely imbricate, broadly ovate, 1-1.2 mm (excluding mucro), shiny, 3-5-veined, keel greenish ending in a straight to slightly excurved 0.3-0.5 mm mucro. Stamens 3; anthers oblong, 0.2-0.5 mm; connective prominent beyond anther apex. Style long; stigmas 3. Nutlet obovoid to subellipsoid, ca. 1/2 as long as subtending glume, 3-sided, smooth. Fl. and fr. Sep-Oct.
A fairly robust, perennial herb with a short, woody rhizome, up to 1.2 m high. Leaves few, 200-400 x 40-80 mm. Leaf sheaths light brown and purple. Inflorescence an anthela consisting of a few sessile spikes and spikes on peduncles. Involucral bracts leafy. Glumes light brown to golden.
Plant to 120 cm. high and generally less robust than C. exaltatus Retz.
Dense-spikeletted, cylindrical spikes in digitate clusters
Swamps, wet rice-fields, on river-banks, and in other open wet places, at low elevations, rarely ascending to 900 metres.
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In swamps, wet rice-fields, on river-banks, and in other open wet places, at low altitudes, rarely up to 900 m.
Uses. According to BROWN (1920) l.c., in some parts of the Philippines the outer portions of the stems are stripped, dried in the shade, and used for weaving mats, mattings, and screens.
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