Herb, dioecious, perennial, forming large tussocks to 30 cm across at the base, the culms forming large tangled trailing masses. Cluster-roots present. Rhizomes ascending or horizontal, up to 15 cm long, 3–7 mm diam., glabrous. Scales deltoid, c. 1 cm long. Culms slender, usually widely spaced on the rhizome, erect at the base but the upper culm scrambling or trailing, terete or slightly compressed, 0.5–2.0 m long, 0.5–1.5 mm diam., usually branched, rugose or papillose. Sheaths 0.8–2.0 cm long, light green to dark brown; lamina terete, erect, c. 1.0 cm long; margin membranous, c. 2–3 mm wide, weathering with age. Spathes hyaline, pale. Inflorescence very short, terminal, erect or drooping, interrupted, of up to 20 flowers; subtending bract on main axis similar to culm sheaths but smaller, 1.5–6.0 mm long; secondary bracts reduced; floral bracts 1 or 2, lanceolate, cuspidate, brown-hyaline, c. 3 mm long. Male flowers: tepals lanceolate to ovate, acute to cuspidate, brown, thin-textured; outer tepals slightly keeled, 1.5–2.8 mm long; inner tepals usually slightly longer, often recurved; filaments c. 1.5 mm long; anthers exserted, c. 1.2 mm long. Female flowers: tepals often slightly larger than males. Capsule circular in outline, compressed. Seed globular, c. 0.9 mm long diam., with a thin, white surface layer, colliculate; colliculae circular. Culm anatomy: epidermal cells with sinuous walls and globular silica bodies, transverse (horizontal) lines of stomates visible on culm surface, chlorenchyma of horizontal plates of palisade-like cells (2 layers of short cells), pillar cells absent, substomatal cavities lined by protective cells, central cavity angular, (2-or) 3-angled.
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