Rhizome ½-1 cm thick, woody, erect or finally becoming almost horizontal, the older part dying off and then the leafy end standing upon long, greyish brown stilt roots 15-30 cm above the ground. Leaves herbaceous, linear, pale green, with denticulate-aculeate margins throughout their length, 20-40 cm by 8-13 mm, the apex rather abruptly narrowed into the acute tip, not caudate, the base slightly narrowed, conduplicate, the midrib prominent on the underside and 2 of the lateral nerves prominent on the upper side, all 3 main nerves scabrous on their raised surface almost from base to apex of the leaf. Scapes lateral, hidden in the leaf-axils, very short, the solitary spikelet almost sessile. Spikelet lanceolate in outline, trigonous, acute, 15-20 by 5-6 mm. Glumes lanceolate, many-nerved, almost ribbed when dry, acute, pale, with scarious margins, c. 15 mm long, the lower sterile ones shorter and broader, ovate to broadly ovate, firmer, c. 10 mm long. Flowers as long as the subtending glume (c. 15 mm), linear; outermost scales narrowly winged on the keel, sparsely ciliate at the top only. Stamens 3; anthers linear, c. 8 mm. Style 3-fid. Nut unknown.
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