Plants forming coarse dense hummocks, rarely ring-forming, 0.6–1 (–2.4) m high, 1–2.5 (–6) m wide, sometimes stoloniferous, not resinous or rarely with droplets of dark-red resin on foliage. Flowering culms 1–2 m high. Leaves: sheath glabrous (or pubescent between nerves); orifice bearded; blade straight, 10–25 cm long (sometimes longer), 0.9–1.3 mm wide, with flat thick pseudopetiole (usually pubescent on both surfaces), with a 3–4 mm long pungent tip, closely nerved, often glaucous, sometimes gland-dotted. Inflorescence a contracted panicle, 20–60 cm long, 1–2 (–4) cm wide; branches to 8 (–16) cm long, sometimes further divided. Spikelets linear, rarely lanceolate, 8–15 (–20) mm long, 2–4 mm wide, with 6–12 (–21) usually closely packed florets, usually blunt at apex, tinged purple or greenish golden; pedicel 0.5–3 mm long; rachilla internodes c. 1 mm long, thick. Glumes equal or not, usually lanceolate, 3.5–6 mm long, acuminate to obtuse, usually entire, sometimes minutely 2-lobed and mucronulate, chartaceous or indurated, 1 (–3)-nerved, glabrous (sometimes pubescent upwards). Callus 0.5 mm long, blunt, bearded. Basal lemma lanceolate, 4–6 mm long, abruptly wider in lower part, minutely 3-lobed (or 2-lobed with a mucro between them), 1–3-nerved, carinate, sparsely hairy near base and on midnerve, sometimes ciliolate on upper margins. Palea narrow-oblong or subovate, entire or notched or 2-lobed, cartilaginous; keels often green; wings exposed, often much wider near apex; flaps broad. Anthers 2–2.8 mm long.
Found along seasonally flooded watercourses, in swamps, valleyfloors, flats, and low-lying fine silty sand plains and on low stony rises,rocky slopes and ridges. Grows in shallow or skeletal, gravelly or stony soilsin association with sandstone, granite, quartzite, laterite, and commonlylimestone rocks; also in deeper sands, podsols, sandy loams and calcareoussoils.
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