Perennial, forming clumps to 300 mm diameter, base hardened, without obvious rhizome. Culm 50-160 mm tall, 0.3-0.6 mm thick, glabrous. Leaf sheath 7-19 x 1.5-2.2 mm, glabrous, not papery, wine-red, sticky. Leaf blade 26-55 x 0.3-0.9 mm, channelled, glabrous except for scabrid margins towards apex. Involucral bract 2 or 3, leaf-like, 10-29 x 0.4-0.6 mm, margin scabrid towards apex. Inflorescence capitate, 4-8 x 2.4-5.7 mm, with 3-6 spikelets. Spikelets 3.9-6.4 x 1.6-2.5 mm, terete, dark brown. Glumes 2.7-3.8 mm long, acute, with a mucro to 0.3 mm long; margins entire. Style trifid. Stamens 3, anthers crested. Nutlets 1.5-2.0 x 0.8-1.0 mm, brown, minutely papillose; hypogynous disc to 0.8 mm long, cupular, 3-lobed.
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