Stems 14 in. long, slender, at the top trigonous, densely and minutely white-hairy. Leaves 4 by 1/3 in., with their sheaths nearly glabrous, scabrous hairy towards the tip. Head 1/4– 1/3 in. in diam., dense, of numerous small white spikelets; bracts 3, spreading, the lowest up to 1 1/2 in. long, similar to the leaves, often white-hairy towards the tip. Spikelet of 3 glumes, with a rudimentary glume, deciduous, with the 1 nut above the two lowest empty (not setaceous) glumes. Nut-bearing glume ovate, scarious-white, slenderly few-nerved; rbachilla broadly winged, resembling closely the nut-bearing glume, crowned by a triangular rudiment of the uppermost glume. Nut as long as the glume broadly ellipsoid, trigonous, black, white-reticulate. Style 3-branched.