Perennial herb. Culms erect, terete, without nodes, grey-green, 20–60 cm high, c. 1 mm diam. Leaf-sheaths pink-brown turning grey-brown with age, usually not shiny, breaking up with age to form a network of fibres round the base of the culms; ligule obvious, white-membranous, to 1.5 cm long; leaf-blades reduced, to 3.5 cm long. Inflorescence globose or hemispherical, 9–14 mm diam. Involucral bracts: 1 longer than the inflorescence, 3–8 cm long, with a second bract opposed with a short awn; both bracts with broad hyaline margins. Spikelets 8–10 mm long; glumes 6 or 7, with an excurved awn. Anthers 2.5–4.0 mm long, with an appendage 1.0–1.7 mm long. Nutlet 2.0–2.5 mm long, 1.2–1.5 mm diam., whitish, short-ovate; gynophore yellowish with a spreading or reduced disc.
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