Perennials. Stolons elongate. Culms tufted, erect, grayish green, 8-25 cm tall, ca. 1 mm thick, smooth, glabrous. Leaf sheaths 1 or 2, basally purplish red to purplish brown, tubular, 1.5-5 cm, mouth obliquely truncate. Spikelet oblong, 5-10 × 3-4 mm, 8-15-flowered. Basalmost glume empty, amplexicaul for more than 1/2 to nearly whole spikelet base; fertile glumes brown to dark brown but sometimes basally pale, ± tightly spirally imbricate, ovate to broadly ovate, ca. 3 × 2 mm, midvein thin or obscure, margin yellowish and broadly hyaline, apex acute. Perianth bristles 4-6, as long as or slightly longer than nutlet (excluding style base), laxly retrorsely spinulose. Stigmas 2. Nutlet yellowish brown, obovoid, 1.8-2 × 1.5-1.7 mm, biconvex, smooth; persistent style base dark brown when mature, shortly 3-angled, wider than long, ca. 1/3 as long and more than 1/2 as wide as nutlet, spongy. Fl. and fr. Jul-Aug.
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