Perennials. Culms to 1 m tall, robust, 3-angled, scabrous, glabrous. Leaf sheath 7-25 cm, to 2 mm thick, leathery to ± fleshy, glabrous, sometimes 3-winged, basal ones purplish red; contraligule not prominent; leaf blade linear, ca. 1 m × 1-2.5 cm, glabrous, margins sometimes scabrous, apex acute. Involucral bracts setaceous, basalmost to 1.5 cm; bractlets glumelike, shorter than spikelets. Inflorescences compound paniculate, ca. 15 × 7-8 cm, with many branches; branch axes long, angled, scabrous, with many spikelets. Spikelets 1 or 2 in a cluster, dark brown, unisexual. Male spikelets many, more than female ones, oblong-ovoid, ca. 4 mm, apex truncate; glumes 2-3 mm, membranous, with rust-colored lines. Female spikelets usually at base of branch, narrowly ovoid, slightly longer than male ones, apex acuminate; glumes triangular-ovate, ovate-lanceolate, or broadly ovate, slightly longer than male glumes. Male flowers: stamen 1; anther linear, ca. 1.7 mm; connective apex protruding, 1/5-1/4 as long as anthers. Female flowers: stigmas 3. Disk brown, triangular-cordate, ca. 1.5 mm in diam., 3-lobed; lobes triangular, short, margin reflexed, apex acute. Nutlet white or gray, ovoid, ca. 3 × 2.5 mm, bluntly triangular, smooth, shiny, glabrous. Fl. and fr. Apr.
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Perennial. Rhizome elongate, 5-17 mm thick; scales brown. Culms 1.3-1.8(-2) m tall, glabrous. Leaves mostly crowded towards base of culm, 20-40 mm broad, bases sometimes corky, up to 5 mm thick, glabrous; sheaths usually split almost to the base from concave mouths. Inflorescence a single terminal panicle without (very rarely with) foliaceous bract, 100-200 x 50-120 mm. Male spikelets sessile, 3.5-4.5 mm long; glumes reddish-brown, glabrous or hispidulous. Female glumes similar, 3.5-5 mm long. Achene broadly ovoid to subglobose, 1-3.5 x 2.5-2.8 mm, glabrous, smooth, grey-brown; hypogynium small, trilobed, lobes short, broadly triangular, white or finely red-brown striate.
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