Herb, perennial, dioecious, caespitose, forming dense, small clumps or large tussocks to 25 cm across at base; cluster roots present. Culms erect, straight, compressed or flattened-cylindrical, simple, 70–90 cm long, 1.2–2.5 mm diam., striate, glabrous, yellow-green, with several internodes 7.0–15.5 cm long. Sheaths closely appressed, 2.0–2.8 cm long, striate, glabrous, the lower one third green and herbaceous, the distal two thirds brown and scarious; apex with a central, flattened, truncate, brown, herbaceous becoming scarious lamina c. 5 mm long, bordered by a pair of flat auricles 3–5 mm long, but often weathering away; ligule area marked by a change in surface texture but not by a ridge or flap. Inflorescence short, narrow, 6–14 cm long; females more erect and crowded; male spikelets drooping on short, unequal, branching pedicels arising from axils of spathes at upper nodes; spathes similar to the culm sheaths but shorter. Male spikelets ovoid to spherical, c. 2.5–4.5 mm long, 1.5–2.5 mm wide. Male glumes: 14–18 sterile lower and 5–7 fertile upper, elliptic, 2.5–3.0 mm long, obtuse, smooth, glossy, red-brown to brown, mostly glabrous, the margin often shortly pubescent. Female spikelets similar to males but becoming lax and spreading when mature. Female glumes: 20–25 sterile lower and 5–7 fertile upper; similar to males. Male flowers: tepals 6, narrow-lanceolate, glabrous; 2 outer tepals keeled and the 3rd outer tepal flat, 2.0–2.5 mm long; 3 inner tepals flat, 1.9–2.1 mm long; stamens 3; filaments c. 1 mm long; anthers c. 1.3–1.8 mm long, not exserted; pistillode absent. Female flowers: tepals 6, similar to but more rigid than male tepals, 2.2–3.0 mm long; 2 abaxial inner tepals sparsely pubescent, others mostly glabrous or 2 lateral outer tepals with a few hairs; staminodes 3; styles 3, basally connate and persistent, wholly stigmatic. Capsule trilocular, 1.0–1.5 mm long, 1 mm wide. Seed ellipsoid, c. 0.5 mm long, pale brown. Culm anatomy: chlorenchyma of 2 or 3 layers of short peg cells; interrupted opposite outer vascular bundles by narrow, radially elongated sclerenchyma girders.
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