Rhizome short. Stems tufted, stout, ancipitous, asperous (like the leaf-sheaths, bracts, and branches of the inflorescence), several-leaved at the base, 60-90 cm (according to a field-label up to 2 m) by 3-5 mm. Leaves coriaceous, equitant, ensiform, gradually narrowed upwards, smooth or slightly asperous, 7-20 mm wide. Panicle erect, oblong, narrow, loose, consisting of 4-5 distant fascicles of branches, 25-30 cm long. Bracts erect, long-sheathing, the lowest with a blade up to 30 cm long, upper ones much shorter. Branches slender, erect, exserted from the sheath, unequal, flexuous, the lowest usually solitary, the upper ones 5-10 together; branchlets finally recurved. Spikelets mostly solitary, some of them in clusters of 2-3, oblong-lanceolate to ovate or elliptic, often somewhat falcate, 2-4-flowered, brown to blackish purple, 6-8 by c. 3 mm. Glumes 5-6, ovate-lanceolate, acutish, scabrous, up to 6 mm. Bristles absent. Stamens 3; anthers c. 2 mm long, with distinctly produced connective. Nut ovoid, obtusely trigonous, slightly rugulose, light or greyish brown, 3-4 by 1½ mm (stipe and beak included); stipe broad, narrowly winged, c. ½ mm long; persistent style-base broadly pyramidal, gradually passing into the nut proper, hispid, dark brown to blackish.
Home