Small tufted perennial.. Leaves 5–8(–11) cm. long, 1 mm. wide; sheaths brown, smooth, glabrous except for ciliate margins below; ligule not seen; lamina linear, smooth, glabrous; apex acute, solid, smooth.. Peduncles 20–30 cm. long, terete, glabrous, smooth, weakly grooved longitudinally; sheaths smooth, shorter than the leaves; spike ellipsoid, later obtriangular, dark brown, 4–5 mm. long; outer sterile bracts obovate, 3.5 mm. long, 1.8 mm. wide, brown, keeled towards the emarginate apex, nerve strong but poorly defined, excurrent as a mucro, inner sterile bracts similar but nerve less prominent and apiculus lacking, apex often splitting but probably not truly laciniate; fertile bracts similar but thinner and more concave.. Lateral sepals boat-shaped, 3.5 mm. long, 0.8 mm. wide, pale brown, darker on the entire glabrous keel; corolla yellow, tube 3 mm. long; lobes oblong, 2 mm. long, 1 mm.. Stamens 1 mm. long including 0.5 mm. anthers; staminodes bunches of hairs.. Ovary obovoid, 2 mm. long, 1 mm. in diameter; style 3 mm. long, the upper third trifid; stigmas 2–3-lobed.. Capsule obovoid, 6 mm. long.. Seeds ellipsoid, 0.5 mm. long, 0.3 mm. in diameter, longitudinally ridged.. Fig. 1/11.
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