Dioecious, caespitose, perennial herb, forming large, dense, many-stemmed tussocks to 30 (–90) cm diam.; rhizomes erect or shortly spreading, pubescent; sand-binding roots present. Scales dark brown, glabrous. Culms crowded at the base, erect, terete, straight to sinuose, 40–70 (–100) cm long, 1.1–1.5 mm diam., unbranched, smooth to subrugose, glabrous except for lowest internode partially pubescent; internodes 6–9. Sheaths: basal sheaths dark red-brown or black, 3–9 mm long; upper sheaths, caducous, oblong (10–) 15–23 mm long, scarious, dark toward base, pale brown in upper half, usually glabrous; margins pale and membranous; apex obtuse; awn short erect, 0.5–1.6 mm long. Inflorescence: spikelets solitary and terminal or several at the culm nodes; spathes often persistent. Male spikelets 1–3 per inflorescence, globose to ellipsoidal, 1–2 cm long and 1–1.5 cm wide, with more than 50 fertile upper glumes and several sterile lower glumes; upper glumes oblong, attenuate, 5.0–5.8 mm long, 1.5–2.5 mm wide, with an awn that is 1.0–1.4 mm long , pale-to dark-brown and often ciliate at the apex; lower glumes broader with a shorter awn. Female spikelets 2–4 per inflorescence, ellipsoidal, 1.5–2.5 cm long and 0.5–1 cm wide; with 16–30 fertile upper glumes and 6–23 sterile lower glumes; glumes broad-ovate, c. 5 mm long, 4–4.5 mm wide, abruptly tapered to an awn that is 1.1–3.0 mm long, dark brown and ciliate toward the apex with white hairs. Male flowers: tepals 5; outer tepals keeled, oblong to obovate, attenuate, often apically ciliate, 3.5–5.3 mm long; inner tepals thin, oblong, truncate, 4.5–6 mm long; filaments 6–7 mm long; anthers 2.2–3.4 mm long. Female flowers: tepals 5, membranous; outer tepals keeled, 3.2–5.5 mm long, inner tepals 2.4–4.5 mm long; gynoecium with a single loculus and style. Nut ovoid, dark brown to black, 1.8 mm long with a broad conical beak 0.8 mm long; pericarp thin and parenchymatous; seed ovoid, dark brown, 1.6–2.2 mm long. Culm anatomy: central cavity present; chlorenchyma continuous, a single layer of elongated peg cells.
Home