glabrous, tall, leafless; rhizome horizontal, woody, 1/6 in. diam., with ovate, acute, black striations, 3/4 in. long; stem up to 2–3 ft. long; top terete or round trigonous, smooth not striate; uppermost sheath produced scarcely an in., shortly acute; bracts 8 or 10, subequal, overtopping the umbel, lanceolate (not caudate) at the tip; umbel compound; rays 8 or 10; bracteoles to the secondary umbels or corymbs inconspicuous, not 1/4 in. long; spikelets 2–7, digitate, rusty pale red, compressed, up to 1/3 by 1/10 in., 6–16-flowered; glumes imbricate, boat-shaped, subacute, irregularly ribbed; stamens 3; anthers linear, hardly crested; nut 1/2 the length of the glume, triquetrous, ellipsoid or obovoid, pyramidal at each end, brown; style much shorter than the nut; branches 3, linear, shortly exserted from glume. null