stems tufted, erect, 18–24 in. high, slightly branched, olive-coloured, coarsely tubercled and white-spotted; leaf-bearing branches shorter, much subdivided; ultimate branches filiform, spreading; leaf-sheaths about 1/2 in. long, closely convolute, coriaceous, with two deep hyaline, ultimately deciduous lobes beneath the subulate-mucronate apex; in the smaller sheaths the mucro is prolonged into a small acicular leaf; male spikelets varying in number from 2–9, in erect, spicate cymes, each spikelet about 1/2 in. long, cylindric-lanceolate, with a short sheathing spathe at the base; bracts oblong-lanceolate, coriaceous, ferruginous, scarcely mucronate; flowers oblong, shortly stalked; perianth-segments oblong, obtuse; outer lateral narrow, boat-shaped, villous-carinate; central flat; inner 3 shorter, thinner, more or less concrescent at the base; anthers chestnut-coloured, with white tubercles; pistillode with 3 rudimentary styles; female inflorescence and perianth as in the male; staminodes 3; ovary ovoid, 3-styled; capsule oblique, 2- or even 1-celled by abortion; seeds trigonous, studded with large white tubercles. null
