Plants perennial, cespitose, to 100 cm; rhizomes sometimes produced, short, not stoloniferous. Culms lax, erect to ascending-excurved, ± terete, leafy, slender, soft. Leaves exceeded by inflorescence; blades erect or ascending, linear, proximally flat, 2–4 mm wide, apex trigonous, subulate, tapering. Inflorescences: spikelet clusters 4–6, widely spaced, loose, broadly to narrowly turbinate, paniculate, branches capillary, ultimate branches with 1 or 2 spikelets; leafy bracts exceeding proximal clusters, setaceous. Spikelets solitary or in 2s, brown, ovoid, 2.5–3.5 mm; fertile scales ovate, 1.5–2.2 mm, apex acute, apiculate. Flowers: perianth bristles 6, reaching tubercle base or slightly beyond, antrorsely barbellate. Fruits 2–3 per spikelet, 1.5–1.6(–1.8) mm; body brown or greenish, obovoid, lenticular, 1.1–1.2(–1.3) × 0.7–1 mm, margins narrow, distinct, sharp, flowing to tubercle; surfaces finely transversely wavy rugulose, intervals of fine, nearly isodiametric or vertical-rectangular pitlike alveolae; tubercle low triangular, entire, 0.3–0.4 mm.
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