Herb, dioecious, perennial, shortly rhizomatous, forming large clumps to 30 cm across, the culms trailing and tangled. Cluster-roots present. Rhizomes 2.0–3.5 mm diam., glabrous. Cataphylls red-brown, extending 1–4 cm up the culms. Culms numerous, crowded on the rhizomes, erect or forming tangled masses, terete or compressed, 0.2–2.0 m long, 0.5–1.5 mm diam., minutely rugose, repeatedly branched, the lateral branches slender and often barren. Sheaths 1–3 cm long, pale to dark brown, acuminate; lamina erect, 3–6 mm long; auricles thin, membranous, weathering with age. Inflorescence short, narrow, sparingly branched, flowers not densely clustered; spathe on main axis similar to culm sheaths but smaller; floral bracts 2, unequal, broad-lanceolate, 1.4–2.5 mm long, 0.4–1.0 mm wide, ± membranous, yellowish brown, acuminate to subulate. Male flowers: tepals broad-lanceolate, acuminate to subulate, yellowish brown; outer tepals usually 2.0–2.4 mm long; inner tepals distinctly longer, 2.2–3.5 mm long; filaments 1.3–1.7 mm long; anthers partly exserted, 1.2–1.5 mm long. Female flowers: tepals brown, becoming rigid, inner tepals longer than outer. Capsule globular, 1.5–2 mm diam., with 3 style bases persisting as conical points. Seeds ovoid, c. 1 mm long, ± smooth, pale brown, colliculate; surface cells polygonal to to rectangular, overlain by a network of narrow ridges. 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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