Herb, dioecious, perennial, glabrous, forming large dense patches of culms arising from stout rhizomes. Rhizomes 4–8 mm diam.; scales pale-brown, scarious. Cataphylls pale brown or blackish, 4–5 cm long. Culms well-spaced, mostly 1–2 cm apart, erect, + terete, 0.5–0.8 (–1.5) m long, 1.2–2.8 mm diam., smooth to subrugose, simple or infrequently branched; lowest internode short, lowest sheath up to 3 cm above cataphylls or partly hidden by cataphylls. Sheaths 7–10, persistent, 1.5–4 cm long, loose but not strongly recurved, pale-to dark-brown, obtuse to truncate; lamina erect, c. 1 (–4) mm long. Inflorescence 4–20 cm long; branches erect, to 10 cm long, densely crowded with flowers; spathes shorter than branches, 1–3.5 cm long; floral bracts 1.5–2 mm long. Male flowers: tepals scarious, pale-brown, oblong-lanceolate, acute or shortly acuminate, inner and outer tepals equal or the outer slightly longer, 2.3–3.0 (–3.2) mm long; anthers 1.0–1.8 mm long. Female flowers: tepals similar length to males. Seeds ellipsoidal, c. 0.8 mm long, colliculate with small circular raised areas, the surface cells in lines parallel to the seed longitudinal axis, but the cells rectangular and elongated transverse to that axis; the surface overlain by a network of low patent plates.
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