Glabrous perennial with short rhizome. Stems tufted, erect, setaceous, obtusely 5-angular, striate, smooth or scabrid just below the inflorescence, 20-40 cm by ½-1 mm, the base clothed with 2-3 obliquely truncate, bladeless sheaths in front dis-integrating into fine, herringbone-shaped fibres. Basal leaves few, shorter than to about as long as the stems, filiform, triquetrous, laterally compressed, smooth, ½-1 mm wide; ligule absent. Inflorescence consisting of a single spikelet. Spikelet erect, oblong or ellipsoid, terete, acute, densely many-flowered, pale green, 7-9 by c. 3 mm; rachilla not winged. Glumes spiral, membranous, oblong, obtuse, muti-cous, scarcely keeled, 1-nerved, hyaline-margined, 4-6 by 1½-2 mm; lower 1-3 glumes larger, empty. Stamens 3; anthers linear; 2-2½ mm long. Style slender, compressed-triquetrous, incrassate at the base, minutely ciliolate, 3-5 mm long; stigmas 3, much shorter than the style. Nut trigonous with convex sides, obovoid, subsessile, umbonulate, ver-ruculose, shining, stramineous, c. 1 by ¾ mm; epidermal cells minute, hexagonal.
In open wet grasslands, in shallow pools, in savannah-forests, at low altitudes.
Home