Herb, monoecious, perennial, rhizomatous, forming small tufts or large clumps to 30 cm across. Rhizome horizontal, stout, 7–10 mm diam., 6–10 mm long, densely villous with white hairs partially covered by scarious scales, the scales pale brown, glossy, glabrous except for long hairs at the base and rarely distally on the keel, broadly ovate to deltoid but split along median line by sympodial growth of rhizome. Cataphylls scarious, oblong, lower ones appressed; upper cataphylls erect, 2–4 cm long. Culms closely spaced, mostly 5 (–8) mm apart on the rhizome, erect, 50–80 cm long, 1–1.5 mm diam., grey-green, internodes 4–6, the lowest internode and base of the second internode densely woolly with white hairs up to 3.5 mm long. Sheaths: lower sheaths to 5 cm long, caducous, leaving prominent swollen nodes; the 2 or 3 uppermost sheaths persistent, often crowded below the uppermost elongated internode; (2.2–) 4.5–7.0 cm long, green or straw-coloured, glabrous, auriculate with a narrow membranous margin; lamina subulate, (1–) 4–5 (–9) mm long. Inflorescence branches slender, 1–2 cm long. Spikelets (1–) 2–3 per culm, ovoid, 1.2–1.7 cm long, 0.5–1 cm wide; axis zigzag; glumes 8–12, ovate to broad-lanceolate, 4–8 mm long, dark brown to black, concave, rigid, acute to acuminate, densely pubescent; margins broad, hyaline. Male flowers: tepals lanceolate, dark brown, soft, densely pubescent adaxially toward the apex with pale hairs, acute, 5.5–7.5 mm long; filaments 3–7 mm long; anthers 2.5–3.5 mm long, attached slightly above the middle to the short connective. Female flowers: tepals lanceolate, acute, concave, dark brown with pale hyaline margins; pubescent toward the apex with pale, tangled, branched, multicellular hairs; outer tepals keeled, c. 5 mm long; inner tepals almost flat, 6–6.5 mm long. Capsule 3.5–4.0 mm long, brown, smooth, the valve margins prominently thickened and pale, often 1 or 2 carpels aborted. Seeds broad-ellipsoidal, c. 1.5–2.0 mm long, patterned with convex, strongly lobed cells. Culm anatomy: with grooves extending to the base of the chlorenchyma, overarched by enlarged epidermal cells; stomates and accompanying sclereids at base of the groove; ridges with a central sclerenchyma rib.
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