glabrous; rhizome creeping; stems 6–24 in. long, somewhat fleshy, roundish; leaves usually short, often hardly any, sometimes exceeding the stem, 1/12– 1/8 in. broad, upper part terete-trigonous; spikelets 1–30, in one apparently lateral head; bracts 2, lower 1–3 in. long, suberect, similar to the leaves; spikelets 1/3 by 1/8 in., straw-coloured, often more or less purple-tinged, 12–24-flowered, compressed but thick; glumes very close-packed, broad-elliptic, obtuse, rounded on the back, falling seriatim from the base of the persistent rhachilla; stamens 3, anthers oblong, with a short lanceolate red crest; undivided part of style about as long as the nut; branches 2 as long as the nut; nut plano-convex, 1/2– 2/3 the length of the glume, obovoid, obtuse, smooth, brown, plane posticous face pressed against the rhachilla, anterior face convex or somewhat ridged. null
