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Perennials. Rhizomes short. Culms tufted, 10-60 cm tall, flatly and obtusely 3-angled, sometimes thick at base, with many leaves. Leaf blade 1-4 mm wide, thick, flat, extremely rigid, margin finely serrulate, apex acute. Involucral bracts 1-3, shorter than inflorescence. Inflorescence a simple or decompound anthela, headlike with a few short rays or open with several elongated rays. Spikelets numerous, solitary or clustered, oblong to ovoid, 3-6 × 1.5-2.5 mm, densely many flowered, apex obtuse. Glumes brown, ovate to broadly ovate, 1.2-2 mm, membranous, abaxially 3-veined, margin broadly hyaline, apex obtuse. Stamens 3; anthers linear. Style slender, not ciliate, basally slightly thickened; stigmas 2 or 3. Nutlet purplish black when mature, obovoid to broadly obovoid, 0.7-1 mm, 3-sided or biconvex, indistinctly verruculose and with square or transversely oblong reticulation but sometimes subsmooth. Fl. and fr. Jun-Oct.
Plants perennial, cespitose, (5–)10–60 cm, bases hard, glabrous; rhizomes absent. Leaves polystichous, mostly spreading-excurved, to 1/2 as long as culms; sheaths usually entire; ligule absent; blades linear, 2–3 mm wide, flat or shallowly involute, margin scabrid, apex blunt. Inflorescences: simple or compound anthelae with numerous small pedunculate clusters of sessile spikelets; scapes linear, distally terete, 1–2 mm thick; involucral bracts short, usually shorter than inflorescence. Spikelets greenish brown or yellow-brown, ovoid, 2–3 mm; fertile scales broadly ovate, 1–1.5 mm, obtuse or apically notched, midrib not excurrent. Flowers: stamens usually 1; styles 2-fid, slender, glabrous. Achenes dark brown to nearly black, tumidly obovoid, rarely obscurely 3-ribbed, 1 mm, faintly striate to variously warty, faintly reticulate. 2n = 56.
Perennial herb, 0.67-0.90 m high. Leaves stiff, ± succulent, 1/4-1/2 culm length; blades 2.7-4.2 mm wide, slightly incurved. Culm scapose, slightly flattened, ± 1.8 mm in diam. Inflorescence variable, up to 60 x 52 mm, a compound anthela of 1 central head with ± 8 branches, each bearing > 1 heads, often contracted to a group of heads; spikelets many, dense. Subtending bracts 2-5, 3 well-developed, leaf-like. Spikelets ovate becoming elliptic-oblong to oblong, 3-8 x 1.2-2.5 mm. Glumes: fertile oblong, 1.6-2.4 x 1.2-1.7 mm, keel terminating subapically. Style branches 3. Flowering time Apr. Nutlet obovate, 0.60-0.85 x 0.5-0.7 mm, 3-angled, dark brown to ± black, surface reticulate to smooth.
