glabrous; rhizome very short, of woody nodules or often hardly any; stem 1–2 ft. long, not stout, trigonous at the top, smooth, not conspicuously thickened at the base by inflated leaf-sheaths; leaves nearly as long as the stem, 1/8– 1/6 in. broad, green; umbel simple; rays 5–12, up to 1–4 in. long, or fewer or very short; bracts 5–10, similar to the leaves, longer than the umbel; spikes solitary, 1/2–1 by 1/3 in., cylindric, rarely much shorter than the ray; spikelets very numerous, spreading in fruit at right angles or somewhat deflexed, nearly terete, not red, linear-lanceolate, bearing 1 or 2 nuts; rhachilla separating below the lowest fertile glume; glume 1 (lowest) small, triangular, with a longish seta (like a bract); glume 2 shorter than 1, subquadrate; glume 3 twice as long as 2, nut-bearing, ovate, obtuse, strongly 7–41-nerved; stamens 3–2; anthers linear-oblong, not crested; nut 2/3– 3/4 the length of the glume, trigonous, linear-oblong, finally nearly black; style 1/2 as long as the nut, branches 3 linear, longish. null
