Rhizomes stout, horizontally creeping. Culms erect, green, 1-2.5 m tall, ca. 2(-3) cm thick, terete, smooth. Leaves mostly reduced to a sheath, glabrous; basal sheath brownish; apical 2 sheaths with leaf blades; leaf blade subulate to linear, 1-10 cm. Involucral bract 1, culmlike, subulate, as long as to slightly overtopping inflorescence. Inflorescence a pseudolateral simple or decompound anthela; rays 2-8, unequal in length, 5-8 cm. Spikelets reddish brown, oblong to ovoid, 0.6-1.5 cm, apex acute. Glumes ovate, abaxially glabrous, margin ciliate, apex emarginate with a 1-veined costa excurrent into a short awn. Perianth bristles 5 or 6, slightly longer than nutlet, retrorsely scabrous. Stamens 3; anthers linear, 1.5-2 mm; connective apex with a pyramidal-ovoid bearded appendage. Stigmas 3. Nutlet grayish, obovoid, ca. 3 mm, compressed 3-sided (ridge evident on abaxial surface when immature). Fl. and fr. Jun-Aug. 2n = 38, 42, 80.
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A sedge. These grow in clumps and have grass like leaves and solid stalks. It grows in large beds in swamps. It has a strong rhizome which creeps along the soil surface. The stems are erect and dark green. They can be 2.7 m high and 1.5 cm wide. The flower is a brown spikelet at the top of the stem.
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