Scleria transvaalensis E.F.Franklin

Perennial. Rhizome little more than the connective between contiguous, woody, swollen culm bases; scales reddish-brown. Culms 0.5-1.25 m tall with bases 8-10 mm thick; glabrous. Leaves 4-10 mm broad, subulate, glabrous; sheath with mouth produced into a deltoid-rounded tongue 2-5 mm long with a membranous extension up to 1 mm long. Inflorescence with terminal panicle 45-90 x 20-45 mm and smaller lateral panicles 1-2 per node at 1-2 nodes exserted 20-120 mm from sheaths. Bracts foliaceous, exceeding their panicles, subulate. Male spielets sessile or shortly pedicillate, 4-6 mm long; glumes reddish-brown, glabrescent. Female glumes reddish-brown with green midrib excurrent into an awn c. 1 mm long; 4-5 mm long. Achene oblong-subglobose, 2.5-3 x 2 mm, glabrous, tessellate-lacunose to tuberculate-lacunose, brownish-white: hypogynium obtusely trilobed, stramineous.