Herb, dioecious or rarely monoecious, perennial, rhizomatous, forming large many-stemmed tussocks with the culms trailing and tangled. Rhizomes horizontal, 3–8 mm diam., glabrous, with scarious scales that mostly weather away. Cluster-roots present. Cataphylls scarious, ovate-lanceolate, 1–3 cm long. Culms erect or trailing, terete or subterete, with few or many branches, c. 30–150 cm long, 1–2 mm diam. near the base. Sheaths 1–3 cm long, light-brown to red-brown, apex usually weathered; lamina terete, c. 2 mm long, present only on young sheaths. Inflorescence narrow, terminal, erect, 3–10 cm long; spathes on the main axis 10–15 mm long, much shorter than the branches that they subtend, distally membranous, fragile, soon weathering and becoming inconspicuous; secondary bracts broad-lanceolate, acute, membranous, 3–8 mm long; floral bracts lanceolate to ovate, hyaline, 1.2–3.5 mm long. Male flowers: tepals 6, ovate-lanceolate, mucronate, red-brown, glossy, becoming rigid; outer tepals 1.4–2.3 mm long; inner tepals distinctly longer, 2–2.7 mm long; filaments 1.4–2.0 mm long; anthers partly exserted, 1.0–1.6 mm long. Female flowers: tepals similar to males, becoming rigid in fruit. Capsule globular, 1–1.5 mm diam, with the bases of the 3 styles persistent as angular points. Seeds narrow-ovoid, surface cells polygonal to rectangular, elongated lengthwise along the seed, overlain by a network of narrow ridges. Culm anatomy: epidermal cells with sinuous walls and globular silica bodies, transverse (horizontal) pale bands of stomates visible on culm surface, chlorenchyma of horizontal plates of palisade-like cells (2 layers of short cells), substomatal cavities lined by protective cells, central cavity angular, (2-or) 3-angled.
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