Tufted annual or short-lived perennial, sometimes forming a turf. Leaves broadly linear or sword-shaped, 2-10(-25) cm long, 2-6.5 mm wide, flat, glabrous, gradually narrowed above to an obtuse or notched, hardened tip. Scapes up to 40 or more, upright, (2-)8-35 cm long, 0.6-1 mm in diameter, ±5-ribbed, stiff glabrous; sheaths lax, 4-6 cm long, shorter than the leaves, somewhat inflated, obliquely split, the limb obtuse or splitting in to 3 or 4 brownish teeth. Heads ± spherical, (3-)5-9 mm in diameter, shiny black or greyish-white to brownish-grey; receptacle, with long woolly hairs, Involucral bracts as wide or shorter than the heads, oblong to obovate, 2.4-2.6 mm long, 1-1.5 mm wide, obtuse, glabrous, yellowish and paler than the rest of the head, becoming reflexed in fruit. Floral bracts oblanceolate to spatulate, 2.7-3 mm long, dark grey or brownish, thin, glabrous or hairy, acute to acuminate or with a cusp at the tip. Flowers 1.5-2 mm long, Male flowers: sepals 3, united below, spathe-like and split down one side, 1.2-1.5 mm long, black, 3-lobed, the tips sharply pointed, glabrous or with some white hairs; petals 3, very small, with or without black terminal glands; anthers 6, black. Female flowers: sepals 3, free, unequal, 1.4-2 mm long, dark grey, 2 narrowly boat-shaped and keeled, glabrous or thinly white hairy above, the third flat, unwinged, linear-spatulate, 1.4-2 mm long, greyish-brown to black, glabrous or with white hairs at the tip; petals 3, unequal, linear, 1.4-2 mm long, yellowish, with white hairs at the tip, with or without black glands. Seeds ellipsoid, 0.4-0.6 mm long, yellowish brown or rarely reddish-brown; seed coat cells transversely elongate, aligned in transverse white, papillose rows; appendages 5 or 6 from the transverse radial walls.
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