Herb, monoecious or dioecious, perennial, glabrous. Rhizome 2–6 mm diam.; scales tan to dark red-brown. Cataphylls extending 1–3 cm up the culm. Culms to 1 cm apart, erect, + terete, 40–75 cm long, 0.5–2 mm diam., smooth to finely striate, simple or rarely branched; lowest internode 3–15 cm long. Sheaths persistent, 0.5–3 cm long, closely appressed to the culm, brown, with a narrow hyaline margin; lamina erect or reflexed, 2–8 mm long. Inflorescence slender, 3–18 cm long; branches erect to slightly flexuose, to 6 cm long, lower branches longer and spaced further apart than upper branches; flowers crowded on short lateral branches; spathes shorter than branches; floral bracts 2, 1.3–2.5 mm long, acutely acuminate. Male flowers: tepals lanceolate, acuminate, pale brown; outer tepals longer, 2.2–3 mm long, keeled; anthers 1.0–1.4 mm long. Female flowers: tepals similar length to males. Seeds ellipsoidal, colliculate with a reticulate pattern of low ridges over large cells, c. 0.7 mm long.
Wet sites over sandstone and sandy alluvium, in heath or woodland and along banks of creeks and lagoons, sometimes in standing water.
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