Submerged perennial with poorly developed slender rhizome, or arising from seeds or detached buds; stems 20–100 cm long, strongly branched from the base; internodes of relatively equal length. Leaves translucent, narrowly linear, 2–8 cm long and 1–2.5 mm wide, with 1 prominent midrib and 1(–2) weaker nerves on each side of the midrib, apiculate at the tip; sheath 5–18 mm long, tubular for more than half the length when young, later splitting almost to the base, light brown, semipersistent. Spikes axillary, 4–12 mm long, 2–15-flowered, rarely interrupted; peduncles 1–3 cm long. Fruit 2–2.5 x 1–1.5 mm, green to olive, obovoid and compressed with convex margins; keel obscure, rounded, smooth; beak 0.3–0.4 mm long, straight or somewhat oblique, almost centrally placed.
Range
N2 (“Medishe Springs”) scattered in Africa, more common in Europe and temperate parts of Asia and North America.
