Annual. Stems slender, smooth, nodeless or 1-noded below the inflorescence, 25-45 cm by 1-2 mm. Leaves rather suddenly narrowed to the obtusish or acutish tip, glabrous, scabrid on the margins and main nerves in the upper part, 2-4 mm wide; sheaths not winged, smooth, shortly pubescent on the anterior side; contraligule short, rounded, with narrow, membranous, ciliate margin. Inflorescence narrow, elongate, consisting of a terminal panicle and (1-)2-3 very remote lateral ones, the terminal panicle somewhat longer than the lateral ones, these single at the nodes, their peduncles more or less exserted from the sheaths, smooth, 2-winged at the dilated top; primary bracts erect, much longer than the panicles in their axils, overtopping the inflorescence; secondary bracts subulate. Spikelets usually unisexual, ♂ and ♀, the nut-bearing ones sometimes bisexual, with 1 or 2 ♂ flowers; ♂ spikelets shortly peduncled (peduncle up to 3 mm long), narrowly lanceolate, c. 4 mm long; stamens 2-3; anthers linear, 1-1½ mm long; nut-bearing spikelets 4½-5 mm long, with a barren or ♂ flower besides the ♀ one; glumes broadly ovate-lanceolate, mucronulate. Cupula deeply 3-lobed, 1 mm wide. Disk triangular with rounded angles, hardly lobed (sinuses very shallow, lobes broadly rounded), tightly appressed, greenish white; scar of cupula deeply 3-lobed. Nut ellipsoid or oblong-ellipsoid, with nearly parallel sides, very obtusely trigonous, truncate at the base, minutely umbonulate, smooth or slightly cancellate, glabrous, dull, white, finally often greyish, 2¼-2¾ by ⅓-2 mm.
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Annuals. Rhizomes short, subwoody. Culms 30-60 cm tall, slender, 3-angled, glabrous. Leaves cauline; sheath 3-angled, not winged, glabrous; contraligule semicircular; leaf blade narrowly linear, 2.5-3.5(-5.5) mm wide, papery, slightly shiny, glabrous, margin scabrous, apex acute. Involucral bracts leaflike, sheathing; bractlets small, narrow, sheathless. Inflorescences paniculate; branches single or binate, (0.5-)1-2 cm, distant. Spikelets mostly unisexual, narrowly ovoid, ca. 5 mm, lax, with ca. 9 flowers, with 11 or 12 glumes. Bisexual spikelets with 1 or 2 empty basal glumes, middle glumes with a female flower, apicalmost glume empty or with a reduced flower. Glumes pale brown, ovate to ovate-lanceolate but apical ones lanceolate, membranous, keel abaxially green, apex acute. Perianth lobes rounded at apex. Male flowers: stamens 2 or 3. Female flowers: style slender; stigmas 2, almost as long as style. Disk not well developed. Nutlet white, subovoid-spherical, 2-2.5 mm (excluding stalk), obscurely reticulate, glabrous, base truncate, apex subrounded and without a tip. Fl. and fr. Jul-Oct.
Savannahs and savannah-forests, fallow rice-fields, edges of swamps, at low altitudes.
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