Plants perennial; rhizomes horizontal, elongate. Culms erect, slender, 15–65(–75) cm, hairy or glabrous. Leaves: sheaths green to brownish or reddish, not or scarcely winged, weakly ribbed, hirsute or glabrous; contra-ligule minute, obtuse, or absent; blades linear, ribbed, usually much shorter than inflorescences, 1.5–4(–5) mm wide, pubescent or more rarely glabrous. Inflorescences terminal, unbranched, glomerate-spicate, 4–8(–12) cm; glomerules 3–9(–11), inserted in longitudinal concavities in rachis, open, nodding or reflexed, greenish to reddish brown, 4–7 mm wide, each with 2–7(–8) spikelets; bract occasionally subtending proximalmost glomerule, attenuate, 1–2.5 cm. Spikelets bisexual and staminate, 4–5 mm; staminate spikelets many flowered; staminate scales lance-acuminate, pistillate scales ovate-acuminate. Achenes sordid white or gray, trigonous, ovoid to subglobose, 1–2 mm, smooth, shining, base broadly cuneate-attenuate, apex mucronate, hypogynium obsolete, represented by narrow brownish ridge or band at base of achene.
