Perennials. Rhizomes short. Culms few, tufted, 10-16 cm tall, slender, compressed triquetrous, longitudinally sulcate, glabrous, base swollen into an ovoid to oblong-ovoid bulb shape and clothed with brown to dark brown fibers from old leaf sheaths. Leaves basal, shorter than to equaling culm; sheath brownish; leaf blade 1-2.5 mm wide, flat, margin scabrid. Involucral bracts 3-5, subspreading but pendent after anthesis, leaflike, mostly to 6 cm, base slightly broad. Inflorescences capitate, 6-8 mm in diam., with 2 or 3 spikes. Spikes with many spikelets. Spikelets densely arranged, ovoid-oblong, 2.5-3 mm, 1-flowered. Glumes yellowish to brownish on both surfaces, ovate to narrowly ovate, ca. 3 mm, membranous, usually purple punctate, tightly including nutlet, apex acuminate. Stamens 2; anthers oblong, ca. 1 mm. Style short. Nutlet brown, oblong-obovoid to oblong, ca. 1.8 × 0.7 mm, compressed 3-sided, with dense puncticulate processes. Fl. and fr. Jul-Oct.
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