Annuals or short-lived perennials, without a conspicuous rhizome. Culms tufted, 20-40 cm tall, angular, smooth but basally scabrid. Leaves equaling to slightly shorter than culm; sheath 2-5 cm, ventral side dark straw-colored and membranous, mouth obliquely truncate; ligule a fringe of short hairs; leaf blade linear, ± flat but margin slightly incurved, herbaceous, smooth except for scabrid apical margins, glabrous to sparsely pilose. Involucral bracts 3 or 4, basalmost leaflike and ± as long as inflorescence. Inflorescence a simple or compound anthela, 3-4 × 2.5-3 cm, lax; primary rays 1-3, 2-4 cm, flattened. Spikelets many per inflorescence, light rust-colored, ovoid to oblong-ovoid, 5-10 × 2.2-2.5 mm, terete, slightly shiny, densely many flowered, apex acute. Glumes many per spikelet, pale and tinged rust-colored, broadly ovate, ca. 2 mm, membranous, 3-veined with lateral pair not reaching apex, apex obtuse. Anthers ca. 0.3 mm. Style flat, basally slightly dilated, apical margin ciliate; stigmas 2. Nutlet brownish, shortly stipitate, broadly ovoid, ca. 1 mm, biconvex, sparsely verruculose and finely cancellate with several rows of transversely oblong cells. Fl. and fr. Mar-Nov.
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