Perennials, 30-45 cm tall. Roots fibrous. Rhizomes to 1 cm thick, hardened, oblique to horizontal, covered with tough fibrous remnants of leaf sheaths. Culms lateral/axillary, (5-)10-20 cm tall, delicate, flexuose, smooth or scabridulous but scabrous on winged angles, basally flattened, apically becoming roundly 3-angled. Leaves basal, tufted; leaf sheath reddish, to 14 cm, not closed, slightly folded, smooth, margin thickly membranous; leaf blade linear, 15-30 cm × 2-6 mm, flat or slightly plicate, leathery, glabrous, margin and abaxial midvein serrulate, apex with a slender 3-6 cm cauda. Involucral bracts 2(or 3), deltate, 2-3 mm, shorter than spike; basalmost bract with tubular or amplexicaul sheath to 1 mm. Inflorescences of 1 or 2 spikes (if 2 then proximal one stalked, subtended by a bladeless sheath up to 6 mm). Spikes ovoid, 4-5 mm, with 10-20 glumelike bracts and pseudospikelets. Glumelike bracts yellowish brown, spirally arranged and imbricate, ovate-deltate, 2.5-3 mm, leathery, ca. 7-veined, keeled, margin white membranous, apex rounded; basal 3 bracts sterile, apical ones each with a pseudospikelet. Pseudospikelets with 2 glumes, 3 male flowers, and 1 female flower, ca. 2 × 1 mm; glumes light brown, lateral and opposite, connate on adaxial (and ?abaxial) side, narrowly elliptic, cymbiform, ca. 2.5 mm, membranous, keeled, spinulose on keel especially distally, each with a male flower. Anther linear, ca. 0.7 mm; connective apex slightly prolonged beyond anther. Style ca. 0.5 mm; stigmas 2. Nutlet light brown, stipitate, ellipsoid-ovoid (widest at mid-length), ca. 2.3 × 1.1 mm, roundly 3-sided, irregularly rugose, apex apiculate. Fl. and fr. Dec-Jul.
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