Perennials. Culms ascending or erect, pale green, densely tufted, 8-25 cm tall, thin, 4-angled, sulcate. Leaf sheaths reddish purple. Spikelet ovoid to ovoid-cylindric, 2.5-6 mm, few flowered, sometimes bearing a second, sterile spikelet in basalmost glume, apex acute to rarely blunt. Basalmost glume empty, amplexicaul for more than 1/2 of spikelet base; fertile glumes green in a broad medial band and dark brown on sides, laxly imbricate, ovate to elliptic, ca. 2 mm, margin broadly hyaline, apex obtuse. Perianth bristles 6, slightly shorter than nutlet, densely retrorsely spinulose. Stigmas 3. Nutlet olivaceous, obovoid, 0.9-1 × ca. 0.5 mm, obtusely 3-sided, smooth; persistent style base deltoid to shortly conic, 1-2 × ca. 3 mm. Fl. and fr. Jun-Jul.