Annuals. Rhizomes absent. Culms tufted, 4-40 cm tall, erect or rarely curved, flatly 3-angled, striate, glabrous, with fewer leaves at base. Leaves shorter than culm; sheath pale brown, 0.5-7 cm, adaxially membranous, mouth obliquely split; ligule very short, ciliate, apex truncate; leaf blade 1-2.5 mm wide but apically attenuate, flat, glabrous, apex acute. Involucral bracts 2 or 3, leaflike, slightly longer to shorter than inflorescence; bractlets subulate or glumelike, base dilated, apex awned. Inflorescence a simple or compound anthela, 1-7 × 1.5-7 cm; rays few, 1-7 cm, slender, ± spreading. Spikelets solitary, broadly ovoid to oblong, 3-7 × 1.5-2.5 mm, many flowered, base cuneate, apex acute, obtuse, or rounded. Glumes rust-colored, oblong-lanceolate, membranous, 1-veined forming an abaxial green keel, apex with a straight mucro. Stamen 1; anther ca. 0.4 mm, apex apiculate. Style subcylindric, glabrous, basally slightly inflated to spherical; stigmas 2 or 3. Nutlet yellowish white, oblong, ca. 1 mm, subterete, with transverse oblong reticulation. Fl. and fr. Jul-Oct.
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