Herb, dioecious, caespitose, perennial, forming small tussocks; cluster and sand-binding roots present. Cataphylls short, 4–12 mm long, pale brown. Culms erect, concavo-convex, tuberculate, green and glabrous to grey and densely pubescent with short hairs, 10–26 cm high, 0.8–1.5 mm wide, internodes 3–6; branchlets 1–3 (–4) at most nodes, straight to flexuose, floriferous, 4–6 cm long. Sheaths appressed, mostly red-brown or dark brown, 3.5–7.5 mm long, truncate, glabrous apart from an apical fringe of white cilia; lamina erect, c. 0.5–2.8 mm long. Male spikelets borne singly, terminal on branchlets, ovoid, 5.0–8.0 mm long, 10–14-flowered; glumes 10–14, ovate-lanceolate, 4.0–6.0 mm long, pale brown, rigid, acute, apical margin villous, mucro 0.9–1.5 mm long. Female spikelets borne singly, terminal on branchlets, ellipsoid, 4–5 mm long, 1-flowered; glumes 4–6, ovate, acute, 2.3–4.0 mm long, reddish brown to pale brown, apical margin ciliate, mucro to 1.2 mm long. Male flowers: tepals 2–5, oblanceolate, equal in length or inner tepals slightly shorter, 3.2–5.3 mm long; lower flowers frequently with more tepals than upper flowers; anthers exserted,1.2–1.7 mm long. Female flowers lacking tepals, ovary unilocular, style 1, mostly stigmatic. Nut (immature) narrow-ovoid, brown with 2 pale lateral lines, c. 2 mm long, including a short broad stipe and an apical stylar beak. Culm anatomy: chlorenchyma continuous, of a single layer of peg cells.
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