Stems 20-50 cm high, moderately branched, wiry below the middle, slender above, terete, wrinkled. Sheaths closely convolute, obtuse, mucronate, coriaceous, narrowly cartilaginous at the margins, pale green, becoming red-brown. Male spikelets 1-3 in a spicate cyme, 4-9 mm long, obovate or rotund, many-flowered. Spathe elliptic, mucronate, 4-6 mm long without the mucro. Bracts loosely embracing the flowers, about 4 mm long, ovate, acute, mucronulate, cartilaginous. Perianth partly exposed at the sides, 3-4 mm long, stipitate, elliptic: outer segments oblong, acute, cartilaginous; the lateral navicular, villous-carinate: inner segments slightly shorter, oblong-lanceolate, obtuse, membranous. Female spikelets 1-2 in a spicate cyme, about 1 cm long, elliptic, many-flowered. Spathe elliptic, coriaceous, with a mucro reaching to near the middle of the spikelet. Bracts loosely embracing the flowers, 5-7 mm long, ovate, acute, mucronulate, coriaceous. Perianth partly exposed at the sides, stipitate, 3.5-4 mm long, elliptic: outer segments lanceolate, acute, coriaceous; the lateral villous-carinate: inner segments ovate, acute, cartilaginous. Ovary compressed, 2-chambered. Styles 3, adjacent.
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Plants 0.3-0.7 m high; stolons present. Culms branching, smooth or finely rugulose, green. Leaf sheaths closely convolute, persistent, apical margins narrowly membranous. Male and female spikelets 1 or 2-5 per culm, 5-12-flowered; spathes persistent, shorter than spikelets, coriaceous. Female spikelets oblong, in branched inflorescences, 10-20 mm long; bracts taller than flowers, margins ciliate. Ovary bilocular with 3 plumose styles, free to base. Flowering time July, Aug. Fruit a dehiscent capsule, with brown seeds.
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