Herb 6.5–26 cm high. Leaves linear, 2–14 cm long, 0.15–0.7 cm wide, 6–12–nerved. Peduncle 6.5–26 cm long, with 4–6 ribs. Sheath 20–60 mm long. Flower heads depressed globular, 2.5–4.5 mm long, 4–6 mm wide. Involucral bracts straw-yellow, obovate to elliptic, 1.25–2.2 mm long, 0.5–1.2 mm wide, obtuse, glabrous, strongly reflexed at maturity. Floral bracts black, spathulate, 1.25–2 mm long, 0.4–0.9 mm wide, acute or mucronate, densely pubescent with white hairs on margin and apex. Receptacle densely pilose, conical. Male flowers 1.1–1.6 mm long; sepals 3, fused but split on one side to form a spathe which is often 3-lobed, black, 1.1–1.6 mm long, 0.45–0.65 mm wide, obtuse, pubescent with apical fringe of white hairs; petals 3, hyaline, equal, oblong, acute or obtuse, pubescent with apical fringe of white hairs; stamens 6; anthers black. Female flowers: sepals 3, black, equal, navicular and geniculate, lacking dorsal keel or wing, 1–1.5 mm long, 0.16–0.45 mm wide, acute, pubescent with white hairs in apical fringe and along keel or margins; petals 3, hyaline, equal, linear tonarrowly elliptic, 1–1.5 mm long, 0.16–0.23 mm wide, obtuse, pubescent with apical fringe of white hairs and hyaline hairs adaxially and on margins although hyaline hairs sometimes reduced or absent; ovary 3–locular. Seeds 0.3–0.5 mm long, 0.23–0.375 mm wide; epidermal cells transversely elongated, unidirectional peg-like projections on transverse walls.
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