Glabrous. Rhizome short. Stems tufted, 8–22 in. long, triquetrous, rough on the angles; basal sheaths chestnut-red. Leaves often as long as the stems, hardly 1/6 in. broad, triquetrous in the upper part. Spike 1 on each stem, 1 1/2 by 1/4 in., male at the top, female below, from chestnut-red to ferrugineous-brown. Female glumes 1/4– 1/3 in. long, lanceolate, acute; margins scarious. Anthers 1/6 in. long, linear. Utricle (without beak) nearly 1/6 in. long, narrowly obovoid, obtuse, very much compressed, indistinctly nerved, glabrous, rarely slightly scabrid; beak exactly linear, 1/3– 1/2 the length of the utricle, very shortly split; rhachilla of the rudimentary spikelet linear, green, included in one margin of the utricle, often as long as the nut. Nut narrowly ellipsoid, flattened, much narrower than the utricle; style 1/2 as long as the nut, branches 2, much longer than the nut, red-brown, conspicuously exserted.
