Perennial. Stems rather stout, glabrous or sparsely pilose, smooth, 100-150 cm by 2-3 mm, the base densely covered with the decayed, finally fibrous, brown remains of old leaf-sheaths. Leaves in a basal rosette and moreover 1-2 distant on the stem, very gradually narrowed to the long, setaceous tip, glabrous or minutely pubescent beneath, scabrid on the margins, 5-10 mm wide; sheaths of the stemleaves and bracts narrow, not winged, smooth, purplish, the mouth truncate, slightly convex, or concave, ciliate. Inflorescence narrow, elongate, 30-60 cm long, consisting of a terminal panicle and up to 6 distant lateral ones; lower primary bracts much exceeding their panicles, the upper ones gradually shorter; secondary bracts inconspicuous; peduncles of lateral panicles single or binate at the nodes, smooth or scabrid, hardly exserted from the sheaths. Spikelets mostly bisexual, some ♂ ones (always?) added, solitary or 2-3 together, ovate in fruit, brown, 3-3½ mm long; glumes ovate, acute, shortly pubescent or subglabrous; stamens 3; anthers linear, c. 1½ mm long. Disk membranous, erect, 3-lobed, narrower than the nut, the lobes very obtuse, undulate. Nut ovoid with slightly convex sides, obtusely trigonous, rounded at the base, apiculate, smooth, shining, white, finally discoloured, with sparse bundles of short, white or ferrugineous hairs, finally glabrescent, 2 by 1⅓-1⅔ mm.
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