glabrous; rhizome stout, horizontal, woody; stem 3–6 ft. long, trigonous, stout, nearly smooth, with nodes scattered throughout its length; basal leaves often 3 ft. long, 1/3 in. broad, flat, stout, scabrous on the margins; sheaths entire, firm; stem-leaves similar but smaller, from cylindric sheaths, passing into the similar bracts; panicle 12–24 by 1–2 in., of numerous axillary branches, somewhat nodding at the top; spikelets dusky-brown, clustered in the axils of secondary ovate-lanceolate bracts, 1/2 in. long, elliptic-lanceolate; empty lower glumes about 6, 1/3 in. long, subdistichous, long acuminate, acute, puberulous; lower flower male, with an imperfect pistil, upper 2-sexual, perfecting a nut; hypogynous bristles 6, up to 1/5 in. long, subulate, white, scabrid (not dilated at the base nor feathered);stamens 3; anthers of the genus with small sterile basal ears; style-base when young ovoid, broader than the young pistil, scabrous, ultimately contracted into a small boss at the top of the large nut; nut (including the stalk) nearly 1/3 in. long, ovoid, smooth, dusky-brown; style persistent, its linear undivided part nearly 1/3 in. long, branches 3 or 4, linear, long. null
