Herb, dioecious, rhizomatous, perennial, forming extensive patches. Rhizomes stout, long, horizontal, 7–10 mm diam., with scarious, often glossy, tan to hyaline scales covering a dense, pale brown, woolly pubescence. Culms spaced to 3 cm apart, stout, terete, 1–1.8 m long, 1.5–2.5 (–7) mm diam., green to yellowish, smooth or finely striate, glabrous, usually sparsely branched, rarely unbranched; internodes 5.5–14.5 cm. Sheaths pale brown, 0.7–2.5 cm long, glabrous, with apically converging longitudinal ribs and a narrow (to 1.5 mm), usually indistinct, caducous, hyaline to brown scarious margin; apex acute to acuminate; lamina 1–1.5 mm long. Inflorescence narrow, erect, 15–50 (–80) cm long. Male and female spikelets similar, small, numerous, ± ovoid, chestnut to copper-coloured, crowded in clusters along the 1–5 cm long, slender lateral branches; 2–4 mm long, 1.5–4 mm diam. Male glumes equalling tepals, 0.8–1.5 mm long, hyaline, red-striate, cymbiform, obtuse or acute to acuminate. Female glumes slightly longer than flower, c. 0.9 mm long, shortly acuminate; floral bract similar length to tepals, c. 0.5 mm long, shortly acuminate. Male flowers: shortly pedicellate, tepals 4, brown to hyaline; outer tepals keeled, lanceolate, glabrous, acutely acuminate, 0.8–1.4 mm long, inner tepals ± equal to outer in length, concave, broader, rarely with a few hairs on upper margin; stamens 3; filaments 1.0–1.5 mm long; anthers exserted, 0.5–0.7 mm long. Female flowers: shortly pedicellate, tepals 6, narrow-lanceolate, acutely acuminate, brown to hyaline; outer tepals keeled, glabrous or upper margin villous, 0.8–1.0 mm long; inner tepals slightly shorter, concave, the midrib prominent abaxially, adaxially covered with a dense, white, woolly tomentum; styles 3-or occasionally 2-branched, basally fused; staminodes not observed. Nut 0.5–0.8 mm long, 0.3–0.4 mm wide, glabrous, glossy brown. Seed c. 0.5 mm long, c. 0.2 mm wide, pale brown, smooth, with a surface pattern of subangular cells. Culm anatomy: chlorenchyma of 2–4 layers of short cells, interrupted by pillar cells and by sclerenchyma ridges opposite the outer vascular bundles that extend from the sclerenchyma sheath part-way through the chlorenchyma; central cavity present or absent; with an inner sclerenchyma layer one cell thick separating the outer and inner ground tissue.
Home