Rhizomes short. Culms 50-120 cm tall, 3-8 mm thick, terete, clothed at base with several bladeless leaf sheaths. Leaf sheaths to 20 cm, subpapery, membranous at mouth, disintegrating into fibers. Involucral bract 1, culmlike, longer to shorter than inflorescence, nearly subulate, stiff, hyaline margins basally ca. 1 mm wide. Inflorescence a pseudolateral simple or decompound anthela; rays 5-8, to 5 mm, compressed 3-angled, scabrous. Spikelets solitary or binate, ovoid to oblong-ovoid, 6-20 mm, many flowered. Glumes pale brown to yellowish brown, ovate-elliptic, 3-4 mm, membranous, 1-veined, margin white hyaline, apex obtuse to emarginate. Perianth bristles 4 or 5, longer than nutlet, plumosely fringed. Stamens 2; anthers linear; connective apex with a fimbriate appendage. Stigmas 2. Nutlet brown at maturity, broadly obovoid, ca. 2 mm, compressed biconvex. Fl. and fr. Jul-Oct.
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