2n = 30

Plants yellow-green, golden when dry, with stiff culms and very harsh lvs. Rhizome 1–1.5 cm. diam., shortly creeping, very hard and woody, covered by fibrous strands from decaying lf-sheaths. Culms ∞, 30–90 cm. × 2–4 mm., erect, obtusely trigonous, very lfy at the base. Lvs ∞, ± = culms, 2–5 mm. wide, often curved, coriac., linear, concavo-convex or ± channelled, margins and keel sharply denticulate, narrowed to a long, trigonous tip; sheaths submembr., much broader than lvs, with ∞, red-brown veins. Infl. 7–20–(30) cm. long, a very congested panicle of c. 12 confluent clusters of sessile Spikelets, each cluster subtended by a rigid lf-like bract adnate to the axis and broadening at base to an open sheath, lower bracts much exceeding infl. Spikelets 4–5 mm. long, dark red-brown. Glumes coriac., rigid, broadly ovate, obtuse, distinctly nerved, finely mucronulate, the lower ones ± keeled. Nut 2.5–4 × 2–2.5 mm., broadly obovoid, concavo-convex, compressed, obtuse, dark brown, smooth and shining.