Plants usually annual, tufted, often stoloniferous; rhizomes absent. Culms ascending, quadrangular, sulcate (not sulcate in Eleocharis sp. aff. brittonii), 7–37 cm × 0.2–0.6 mm, soft to firm. Leaves: distal leaf sheaths persistent or fugaceous, pale brown or green, sometimes streaked red-brown, membranous to translucent, apex acute to acuminate. Spikelets: basal spikelets absent; often proliferous, ellipsoid to ovoid, terete, 2–10.5 × 1–2.8 mm, apex acute; proximal scale empty, persistent, amplexicaulous, dissimilar to floral scales, slightly longer, often resembling an involucral bract, elliptic or lanceolate, 1.4–2.7 × 0.8–1.2 mm, apex rounded, midrib markedly thickened and broad; subproximal scale with a flower; floral scales spiraled, 13–76, 9–13 per mm of rachilla, colorless or pale brown, streaked or mottled pale brown to red-brown, midribs sometimes green, ovate, elliptic, or obovate, 0.8–2.2 × 0.5–1 mm, papery or membranous, midrib evident to prominent, apex rounded. Flowers: perianth bristles 5–6 or absent, appressed to achene, white, vestigial to shorter than achene, to 0.3 mm; spinules not evident at 45X; stamens 2–3; anthers 0.2–0.45 mm; styles 3-fid. Achenes grayish to pale olive or yellowish, often minutely brown-spotted, obovoid, trigonous, angles prominent, 0.45–0.8 × 0.3–0.55 mm, apex constricted proximal to tubercle, smooth or finely pitted at 30X. Tubercles gray, green, or yellowish, birettaform, trigonous, 0.05–0.1 × 0.15–0.3 mm. 2n = 10.
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