Perennial (always?) with short rhizome; stolons wanting. Stems slender, somewhat tufted, rigid, triquetrous, smooth or scaberulous at the top, up to 90 cm by 1-2 mm. Leaves flat to conduplicate, rigid, very gradually acuminate, with cartilaginous margins scabrid in the upper part, 2-4 mm wide; lower sheaths reddish to blackish brown. Inflorescence simple, loose to contracted, 3-7 by 6-9 cm. Involucral bracts 2-4, patent, the longest much overtopping the inflorescence, up to 20 cm. Rays 3-6, suberect, smooth, up to 6 cm. Spikes broadly ovoid, up to 3 cm long and wide, with 4-12 spikelets; rachis glabrous, up to 1 cm. Spikelets patent, oblong or lanceolate, compressed but slightly turgid, acute, 10-20(-30)-flowered, 8-15(-25) by 4-5 mm; rachilla flexuous, wingless, persistent; internodes 3/5-¾ mm. Glumes chartaceous, divergent, ovate to oblong, keeled, acute, muticous, ¾ imbricate, 3¾-4 by 2½-3 mm; keel acute, 3-nerved; sides nerveless, shining yellowish green to brown; margins not or hardly hyaline, undulate when dry. Stamens 3; anthers linear, up to 2 mm. Style long (1½-3½ mm); stigmas 2, up to 3 mm. Nut relatively small, biconvex, laterally compressed, short-elliptic to slightly obovate, shortly apiculate, shining black, 1-1½ by 4/5-1 mm; epidermal cells isodiametric.
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Plants with elongate rhizomes; culms slender, 30-90 cm. high; leaves 2-4 mm. wide; bracts long and leaf-like; spikelets 10-18 mm. long, yellowish, short-spicate and on rays or in a single dense cluster; scales 4 mm. long, acute, lucid brown, closely appressed; achene obovoid, 1.5 mm. long, compressed, dull gray, coarsely reticulate.
In open localities: swamps, marshes, borders of lakes, river-banks, usually at medium altitudes (up to 1900 m), in New Guinea up to 2800 m.
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