Plants perennial, cespitose, to 100 cm; rhizomes absent. Culms erect to ascending, arching, lax, leafy, slender, trigonous. Leaves exceeded by inflorescence; blades ascending to spreading, linear, proximally flat, 1–2(–3) mm wide, apex trigonous, subulate, tapering. Inflorescences: spikelet clusters 4–6, mostly dense, widely spaced, narrowly turbinate to ellipsoid; peduncles erect to ascending, branches ascending; leafy bracts exceeding proximal clusters. Spikelets dark brown, ovoid, 2–3 mm, apex acute; fertile scales broadly ovate to ± orbiculate, cupulate, 1.5–2 mm, apex rounded to acute, midrib included or excurrent as bristle. Flowers: perianth bristles 6, from vestigial to (rarely) reaching tubercle tip, antrorsely barbellate. Fruits 2–3 per spikelet, 1.2–1.5 mm; body brown, obovoid to globose, lenticular, 1–1.2 × 0.8–1 mm, margins narrow, distinct; surfaces sharply transversely wavyrugose, intervals with rows of vertical, broadly rectangular or ± isodiametric alveolae; tubercle lowtriangular or triangular, compressed, 0.2–0.3 mm, base lunate.
