Plants perennial, cespitose, 100–150(–200) cm, coarse; rhizomes absent. Culms stiffly erect, leafy, triangular, multiribbed; principal leaves overtopped by culm; blades flat, 3–20 mm wide, apex attenuate, trigonous. Inflorescences terminal and axillary, diffuse clusters of corymbs, fascicles turbinate to hemispheric; bracts often overtopping clusters. Spikelets few to several per cluster, brown or reddish brown, lanceoloid, 10–15 mm, apex narrowly acute; fertile scales broadly lanceolate, (7.5–)10–13(–14) mm, apex acute, midrib shortexcurrent or not. Flowers: perianth bristles 5–6, longest reaching to or slightly beyond fruit midbody, antrorsely barbellate. Fruits 1(–2) per spikelet, 13–20(–25) mm; body oblongellipsoid, compressed, 4–5(–6) × 2–3 mm, base narrowed, short, margins thickened, often crimped, surfaces concave, striate, minutely cancellate or pebbled; tubercle subulate, 2-grooved, 10–15(–20) mm, scabridulous. 2n = 18.
