Plants usually yellowish greenish when fresh or dried, hetero-phyllous. Stems 30–200 cm. Leaf blades light yellowish green, narrowly elliptic to lanceolate, rarely ovate, 35–70 × 7–18(–35) mm, apex acute to acuminate; stem leaves 2.1–3.5(–4.2) times as long as branch leaves; distal leaves usually 1–2 mm, not overtopping flowers, or 5–15 mm, surpassing flowers. Inflorescences axillary and terminal, spikelike; cymes crowded toward tips of branches, 2–5-flowered. Pedicels exserted from ocreae, 2.5–6 mm. Flowers: perianth (2.6–)3–4 mm; tepal margins greenish yellow or yellow, rarely white or pink; stamens 3–6(–8). Achenes enclosed in or exserted from perianth, (2.3–)2.5–3.5 mm, shiny or dull, smooth to roughened, sometimes uniformly or obscurely tubercled; late-season achenes 5–12 mm. 2n = 60.