stems 1–1 1/2 ft. high, terete, purple-spotted, slightly branched; branches erect or spreading, filiform; leaf-sheaths 3/4 in. long, elliptic, coriaceous, membranous at the apex, prolonged into a long, deciduous awn; smaller sheaths with two hyaline lobes and a leafy awn; male spikelets 5–7, in spicate cymes, each about 1/4 in. long, oblong, obtuse, slightly exceeding the bract-like spathe; bracts closely overlapping, oblong-lanceolate, coriaceous, with a prominent midrib; flowers oblong, stipitulate; perianth-segments linear-oblong, obtuse; lateral conduplicate, with a glabrous keel; inner rather shorter, thinner; anthers linear-oblong; female spikelets 1-flowered; staminodes minute; fruit 3-cornered, coriaceous, 1-celled, with 3 stigmas. null
