Plants perennial, cespitose, 60–100(–120) cm; rhizomes absent. Culms leafiest at base, trigonous, slender, somewhat stiff. Leaves exceeded by culms; basal blades spreading, blunt, distal ascending, linear, proximally flat, 2–5 mm wide, apex trigonous, subulate, tapering. Inflorescences: spikelet clusters 3–5 or more, compact, proximalmost widely spaced, turbinate to hemispheric or lobed; peduncles ascending, branches ascending; leafy bracts setaceous at apex, exceeding compounds, setaceous bracts often exceeding ultimate clusters, imparting bristly aspect. Spikelets red brown, ovoid to lanceoloid, (2.7–)3–4 mm, apex acuminate; fertile scales ovate, 2.5–3 mm, apex acute, short acuminate, or notched, midrib usually excurrent as cusp or awn. Flowers: perianth bristles 6, not reaching further than fruit midbody. Fruits 1–3 per spikelet, (1.8–)2–2.3(–2.5) mm; body brown, tumidly lenticular, obovoid to suborbicular, 1.4–1.6(–1.8) × 1.2–1.5 mm; surfaces transversely sharply rugose, intervals of rows of vertical, variously rectangular alveolae; tubercle somewhat compressed, triangular to short conic, 0.5–0.7 mm, short subulate, basal rim often present.
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