Glabrous except the minutely scabrous panicle-branches and utricles. Rhizome stout. Stems 2–4 1/2 ft. long, robust. Leaves 2 ft. by 1/3 in., stout. Panicle 11 by 2 in., the partial panicles narrowly oblong, erect, dense, chestnut or deep brown; bracts overtopping the panicle. Spikelets 3/4 by 1/6 in., with 6–8 utricles, male at the top. Female glumes elliptic-lanceolate, sometimes mucronate, rather shorter than the utricles, brown or chestnut, hardly striate except near the keel, minutely hispid over the top of the back. Utricle exceeding 1/4 in. long, linear-lanceolate, triquetrous, densely hispid, beak about 1/2 the length of the utricle, linear, very hispid, deeply split at least on the convex face. Nut 1/10 in. long, oblong, dark-brown on a long yellow stalk.