Perennial with short rhizome; stolons absent. Stems tufted, slender, triquetrous, smooth, thickened at the base, 10-40 cm by ½-1 mm. Leaves weak to rather stiff, gradually acuminate, scabrid in the upper part, (1-)2-4 mm wide; lower sheaths dark brown. Inflorescence simple, loose or more or less contracted, sometimes reduced to a single ray. Involucral bracts 3-5, patent, much overtopping the inflorescence, up to 30(-50) cm long. Rays (1-)3-6, divergent, slender or very slender, smooth, up to 4 cm. Spikes broadly ovoid, with c. 8-25 spikelets, 1-2 by 3(-4) cm; rachis short, 1-1½ cm. Spikelets at first obliquely erect, finally horizontally spreading to somewhat reflexed, linear, acute, slightly compressed, falling off as a whole, up to 12-flowered, 10-20 by 1-1½ mm; rachilla flexuous, broadly winged; wings hyaline, tightly clasping the nut; internodes 1½-2 mm. Glumes membranous, appressed, oblong, subacute, minutely mucronulate, hardly or slightly imbricate, strongly 7-9-nerved, with green keel, stramineous sides, and hyaline margins, 3¾-4 by 1¾-2 mm. Stamens 3; anthers linear, 1-2 mm. Style 1-1½ mm; stigmas 3. Nut trigonous, oblong-ellipsoid, concave on the ventral side, with straight dorsal angle and convex lateral ones, shining, light brown, 2-2¼ by ¾-1 mm.
Damp to dry places, usually under light shade: road-sides, open forests, river-banks, thickets, at low altitude, up to 750 m.
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