glabrous, large; stolons long, 1/8 in. in diam., clothed with sheathing, lanceolate scales, often more than 1 in. long; stems often 3 ft. long, triquetrous at the top, 1/5 in. in diam. (slenderer in var. β); leaves 18 by 3/4 in. thick, flat in the typical form (but see var. β); umbel 6–12 in. in diam., somewhat dense, compound, with numerous spikes; bracts 3–4, overtopping the umbel, similar to the leaves; spikelets 4–12 to a spike, lower often 1/12 in. apart on the sub-flexuose, glabrous rhachis, 3/4 by 1/10 in., compressed, pale or reddish, 8–16-flowered; rhachilla not winged; glumes loosely overlapping, hardly keeled, ovate-oblong, very obtuse, obscurely nerved, margins and tip scarious; stamens 3; anthers linear, not crested; nut 1/2 the length of the glume, trigonous, narrow-obovoid, brown; style 3/4 the length of the nut, branches 3 linear, moderately exserted from the glume. null
