Xyris natalensis L.A.Nilsson

Tufted perennials up to 0.85 m tall. Rhizome subhorizontal, hard, compact, covered by persistent, shiny, brown leaf-bases and cataphylls; roots thick, hard. Leaves clustered, terete, up to 500 mm long, c. 1 mm thick, wiry, apex acute, widened abruptly below to form an open, auriculate sheath. Spikes on exserted, terete, wiry peduncles enclosed basally by an open, cylindrical sheath; heads often cone-like, ovoid to oblong-ovoid, c. 10-28 mm long, mid-brown, shiny; lowest sterile bracts very narrowly ovate, smooth, frequently aristate, fertile ones with a minutely punctate median area, margin entire or mildly erose. Lateral sepals folded, falcate, apiculate; keel prominent, densely ciliate especially in upper half. Capsule narrowly cylindrical, 3 mm long, thin-walled. Seeds typical. Flowering in summer.