Perennials. Rhizomes oblique; scales purplish brown, broadly ovate, apex acute. Culms laxly tufted, 35-68 cm tall, slender, subangular, striate-sulcate, clothed at base with 2 leaf sheaths. Cauline leaves with sheath 1-3 cm, glabrous; ligule reddish brown, 1-2 mm, membranous, mouth truncate; leaf blade 3-5 mm wide, flat, margin scabrous, apex acuminate. Involucral bracts leaflike, margin and sheath pubescent. Inflorescences with 3 glomerulate clusters of spikelets, each cluster bearing 3-5 spikelets; peduncles compressed, pubescent. Spikelets ovoid to spherical, 5.5-8 × 3.5-5 mm. Glumes brownish green to grayish black, broadly obovate, ca. 3 mm, pubescent, margin ciliate, apex rounded, emarginate, and with a 3-veined costa excurrent into a scabrous ca. 1 mm awn. Perianth bristles 6; 3 outer bristles brownish, needlelike, 1/2-2/3 as long as inner ones, squamellate, pubescent; 3 inner bristles with blades abruptly narrowed at base, distinctly stalked, margin ciliate, apex obtuse. Stamens 3; anthers oblong, 0.2-0.3 mm, apex obtuse. Stigmas 3, as long as style. Nutlet obovoid, ca. 1 mm, 3-sided. Fl. and fr. Jul-Nov.
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