Herb, dioecious, rhizomatous perennial, forming dense or sparse patches to 75 cm across. Rhizomes horizontal, slender, 1.5–2.5 mm diam., pubescent or with axillary hairs; scales closely appressed, overlapping, scarious, red-brown. Culms spaced up to 1 cm apart, erect to somewhat flexuose, terete, unbranched below the inflorescence, smooth to striate, 20–60 cm long, 1.0–1.5 mm diam. Sheaths red-to grey-brown, glabrous, 4–8 mm long, obtuse to almost truncate; lamina short, erect, caducous, c. 0.5 mm long. Inflorescence: male spikelets pedicellate; pedicels c. 1–3 mm long, originating from the uppermost few culm nodes; pedicels and branchlets shortly white tomentose; female spikelets sessile or shortly pedicellate in small, often dense, clusters at the distal nodes. Male spikelets initially ovoid, becoming globose as glumes spread with age, 4–10 mm long; glumes 13–35, rarely up to 80, ovate, acute to cuspidate, 3.0–3.4 mm long, red-brown, glossy, glabrous, with a very short erect mucro; all fertile or rarely the lowest 3 glumes empty. Female spikelets + ovoid, 1.5–2.0 mm long; glumes 4–6, ovate, mucronate, 1.5–2.5 mm long, membranous, brown-hyaline with a distinct midrib terminating in a short erect point. Male flowers: tepals 5 or 6, lanceolate, acute; 2 outer lateral tepals slightly longer, 1.5–2.0 mm long; inner tepals flat; anthers 0.8–1.0 mm long. Female flowers: tepals 1–2 mm long; style 3-branched, branches free almost to the base. Fruit a nut with woody pericarp, broad-ovoid tapering to a conical apex, light red-brown, 1.5–2.0 mm long, bases of style branches persisting as beaks on the fruit; shed with surrounding glumes and perianth. Seed globular, light brown, c. 0.9 mm long, c. 0.8 mm wide. Culm anatomy: chlorenchyma of 2–4 layers of short cells, interrupted by pillar cells and partial sclerenchyma ridges opposite the outer vascular bundles.
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