perennial; rhizome short, slender; culms erect, 1–1 1/4 ft. long, glabrous, smooth, 2–3-noded, lowest internode swollen (normally?) into a depressed subglobose tuber 3 lin. in diam., covered by the villous sheath-bases; basal leaves 3–4; sheaths rather loose to tumid, glabrous, smooth; ligule almost reduced to a line of short hairs; blades linear, gradually tapering, 3 in. by 1 lin., glabrous, smooth or scaberulous, rather rigid, the uppermost very small or suppressed; panicle narrow, linear, nodding, 2–4 in. long, secund, almost reduced to a raceme; rhachis very slender, smooth; branches in semi-whorls or pairs or solitary, erect or spreading; pedicels subcapillary, smooth, 2–6 lin. long; spikelets elliptic-oblong, 3 lin. long; glumes subequal, lanceolate-oblong, acute or subobtuse, 2–2 1/2 lin. long, 5–7-nerved, glabrous, purplish; empty valves oblong or the lower obovate-oblong, truncate, mucronate, 3 lin. long, 5–7-nerved, strongly transversely rugose, pubescent, the lower bearded at the base in front and behind, the upper with a very narrow curved 2-bearded base; fertile valve obliquely oblong, truncate, smooth or obscurely rugose, 7-nerved; lodicules ciliate; stamens 6; anthers 1 1/2–1 3/4 lin. long; stigmas plumose. null