glabrous, huge; stem 3–6 ft. long, triangular at the top, 1/4– 1/2 in. in diam., smooth; leaves 2–4 ft. by 1/2–1 in., very stout; rays of umbel often a foot long; bracts 4–8, similar to the leaves, lowest often 24 by 1 in.; secondary umbels with many rays and bracts 1–4 in. long; spikes 1 1/2 by 3/4 in., cylindric, dense, of 30–70 spikelets, often more or less compound at the base; spikelets 1/3 by 1/10 in., compressed, yellow or straw-coloured, 10–20-flowered; wings of rhachilla linear-lanceolate, or linear, yellow, soon separating, caducous; glumes closely and somewhat rigidly imbricate, boat-shaped, pointed; stamens 3; anthers small, oblong, not crested; nut about 1/3 the length of the glume, trigonous, ellipsoid, pyramidal at the ends, brown; style as long as the nut, branches 3 linear. null
