2n = c. 30

Large lfy clumps. Culms 50–100–(120) cm. × 3–5 mm., smooth, laterally compressed. Lvs 30–150 × 1–2–(3) cm., flat, pale green, tapering to an acuminate tip, margins smooth. Panicle 15–35 cm. long, drooping, much-branched; lowermost sheathing bract with ciliate mouth and lamina up to 3 cm long; branches in fascicles from upper sheaths. Spikelets , 3–4 mm. long in small fascicles towards the tips of the branchlets, red-brown, 2–3–(4)-fld, us. lowest 1–2 fls fertile. Glumes 5–7, ovate-lanceolate, acuminate to almost awned, scabrid-pubescent, lower 2–3 sterile. Hypog. bristles 0. Stamens elongating after flowering, filaments bright red-brown. Nut, including beak, 2–2.5 mm. long, < 1 mm. wide, acutely trigonous, almost alate, fusiform, brown, narrowed above and below to a 3-angled beak and stipe each c. = body of nut in length.