Perennial with short-creeping, woody rhizome. Stems solitary or subcespitose, slender but rigid, triquetrous, smooth, 20-70(-100) cm by 1-2 mm, the incrassate base surrounded by some purplishstriate, bladeless sheaths. Leaves several, shorter than the stems, canaliculate, rigid, very gradually acuminate in a long, setaceous point, scabrid in the upper part, c. 3(-6) mm wide. Inflorescence simple or subcompound, open, sometimes reduced to a single cluster. Involucral bracts 3-7, erecto-patent, the longest as long as or overtopping the inflorescence, up to 20 cm. Primary rays 4-10, obliquely erect, very unequal, slender, smooth, up to 20 cm; secondary rays when present up to 3 cm. Spikes broadly ovoid, up to 5 by 6 cm, with 3-10(-15) spikelets; rachis glabrous or slightly scabrid. Spikelets spicately arranged, at first suberect, finally patent to horizontally spreading, linear or linear-lanceolate, slightly compressed, subquadrangular (i.e. rhomboidal in cross-section), 8-20(-rarely more)-flowered, 2-3(-5) cm by c. 2 mm, the lowest of each spike often with a setaceous, up to 1 cm long bract; rachilla flexuous, broadly winged, persistent, blackish, internodes c. 1½ mm; wings oblong, caducous, whitish hyaline, ½ mm wide. Glumes chartaceous, appressed, keeled, ovate or elliptic, obtuse or acutish, muticous or minutely mucronulate, 7-9-nerved, (3-)3½(-4) by 2-2¼ mm, remote (not or scarcely imbricate); keel broad, green, sides golden yellow to fulvous, margins narrow, hyaline. Stamens 3; anthers linear, 1-1½ mm long, the connective hardly produced. Stigmas 3. Nut triquetrous, ellipsoid or slightly obovoid, broadly stipitate, minutely apiculate, castaneous to blackish, (1½-)1¾-2 by 4/5-1 mm.
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Perennials. Rhizomes short, woody. Culms laxly tufted, 40-75 cm, slender, triquetrous, smooth, basally with several leaves, base slightly swollen. Leaves shorter than culm; sheath brown, ± long; leaf blade 2-6 mm wide, margin revolute. Involucral bracts (2 or)3, leaflike, basalmost longer than inflorescence. Inflorescence a simple or rarely compound anthela; rays 3-7, 1-10 cm. Spikes ovoid, with 3-14 spikelets. Spikelets laxly arranged, narrowly linear-ovoid to linear, 1-2 cm × 1.5-2 mm, subquadrangular, obliquely spreading but subspreading after anthesis, 6-14-flowered; rachilla flexuose, wings blackish brown and caducous. Glumes yellow to yellowish brown on both surfaces, slightly lax, elliptic, ca. 4 mm, membranous, 7-9-veined, keel green, apex obtuse. Stamens 3; anthers linear; connective slightly prominent beyond anthers. Style long; stigmas 3. Nutlet black, ellipsoid to obovoid, 3-sided, concave on 3 sides, ca. 1/2 as long as subtending glume, densely puncticulate. Fl. and fr. May-Nov. 2n = 88.
In open grassland, savannahs, fallow fields, along grassy road-sides, sometimes in wet places in forests, on rather dry to swampy soil, 0-1600 m.
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