glabrous except the glumes; rhizome woody, creeping; stem 1–3 ft. long, trigonous; leaves all basal, often exceeding the stem, 1/5 in. broad, flat, green; umbel simple or somewhat compound, or reduced to 3–1 spikelets in a head; bracts 3–4, up to 4–8 by 1/5 in., similar to the leaves; spikelets attaining 1 by 1/3 in., often much smaller, dark-brown; glumes up to 1/4 in. long, ovate, notched at the top, with a minute mucro in the notch, more or less pubescent at the top, sometimes (especially the outer ones) minutely brown-hairy all over; hypogynous bristles 6–3, hardly so long as the nut, retrorsely scabrous, sometimes reduced, very rarely 0; stamens 3; anthers linear-oblong, apiculate; nut scarcely 1/3 the length of the glume, obovoid, dorsally compressed or nearly biconvex, smooth, brown; style linear, as long as the nut, branches 3 or 2 linear, longer than the style. null
