Perennial, erect or nodding, 23-105 cm high, in large clumps: rhizome horizontal, rarely vertical, ligneous; internode 0.6-3.1 x 0.2-0.6 cm, clothed by many-nerved, red-brown, persistent sheaths: leaves limited to sheaths; sheaths 4.5-6.5 x 0.4-2.4 cm, glabrous, many-nerved, nerves converging at apex, margin of mouth scarious; blades generally absent: culms triquetrous to terete, mainly triangular, glabrous: inflorescence bud ovoid, up to 4.6 cm long: involucral bracts 3, subtending rays, not exceeding inflorescence; inflorescence 5.6-18 x 5-5.5 cm; rays 101-259, umbellate, up to 16 cm long, forming reflex angle with culm apex, sheathed at base by tubular prophylls, 0.9 cm long: capillary rays occasional; ray receptacle globose: spikelets 1-30 per ray, 6-17 x 1-1.5 mm, generally flat, elliptic to narrowly ovate, yellow-brown to red-brown, darkening on drying and age: rhachilla straight, yellow-brown: glumes lowermost 1-3 sterile, remainder fertile, 1.2-1.7 x 0.2-0.4 mm, broadly ovate, base truncate, glabrous, yellow-brown, margin scarious, keel three-nerved, central nerve excurrent into mucron, 0.1 mm long: stamens 3; anthers 1.2 x 0.2 mm, yellow-brown, crested; filament as long as anther, pallid, with small red-brown markings: style 0.3 mm long, pale yellow-brown; style branches three, 1.2 mm long, dark brown, papillate: achene 0.4 x 0.2 mm, obovate, trigonous in transverse section; outermost cells rectangular, with markedly sinuous margins.
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Herbs, perennial, cespitose, rhizomatous. Culms trigonous to terete, 20–100 cm × 2–6 mm, soft (flattened in drying), glabrous, often flopping over and rooting at base of rays. Leaves: blades reduced to sheath. Inflorescences: rays 100–250, 5–16 cm; 2d order rays 0.5–5 cm; bracts 2–3, horizontal or reflexed, 4–12 cm × 1.5–4 mm. Spikelets 1–30, linear-lanceoloid, ellipsoid to narrowly ovoid, compressed-quadrangular, 6–17 × 1–1.5 mm; floral scales 5–12, reddish brown, 1–3-ribbed, 1.2–1.7 × 0.7–0.9 mm, apex mucronulate. Flowers: stamens 3; anthers 1–1.2 mm; styles 0.3 mm; stigmas 1–1.3 mm. Achenes brown, obovoid, 0.4 × 0.2 mm, base stipelike to nearly cuneate, apex obtuse, surfaces finely reticulate.
Perennial herb, 0.3-1.2 m high, rhizomatous. Leaf blades absent. Culm scapose, 1.5-5.5 mm in diam., ± terete, glabrous. Inflorescence umbellate, 60-240 mm in diam., with up to 100 stalks, each supporting a digitate cluster of spikelets or 1 sessile and 1-several shortly stalked clusters of spikelets. Subtending bracts 3, leaf-like. Spikelets linear to narrowly lanceolate, 3-12 x 0.8-1.3 mm. Glumes oblong, 1.2-1.5 x 0.6-0.8 mm wide, rounded to ± truncate, keel excurrent into short awn. Flowering time Dec., Jan. Nutlet obovate, apex rounded, 0.4-0.5 x 0.3-0.4 mm, 3-angled, whitish to pale brown, surface smooth to puncticulate.
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