Bright green or reddish leafy tufts usually 45-80 cm high, stems drooping above. Female spikes c. 5, ± distant, ± pedunculate, ± 2 cm × 5 mm, usually dark reddish-brown. Stigmas 3.

Very shortly rhizomatous; green lfy tufts, drooping above, (15)–45–80–(100) cm. high. Culms 0.5–1.5–(1.7) mm. diam., trigonous, striated, edges smooth; basal sheaths light brown, grey-brown or often dark red-purple. Lvs > or < culms, 1.5–5 mm. wide, double-folded, bright green or yellow-green, or red-green with red margins and midvein red abaxially, margins finely scabrid. Spikes (4)–5–7–(8); terminal spike male, rarely with a few female fls at the top or with 1–2 very small male spikes at the base; remaining spikes female, us. with a few male fls at the base, more rarely male at the top, 0.5–2.5–(3) cm. × 4–6 mm., uppermost spikes erect on very short peduncles, ± distant, lowest spike often quite remote and drooping from a slender peduncle. Glumes (excluding awn) slightly < utricles, ovate, emarginate to almost entire, pale reddish green or light brown, to dark red-brown with paler margins, membr., midrib broad, pale brown, occ. bright red-purple or straw-coloured, with 3 distinct, almost white, nerves produced to a us. short scabrid mucro. Utricles 2–3 × c. 1.5 mm., biconvex, turgid, ovoid, yellow-brown at the base, red-purple to almost black above, abaxial face us. lighter coloured and more distinctly nerved than the other, margins occ. very finely scabrid below the beak; beak c. 0.5 mm. long, almost white, deeply bifid with divergent crura, orifice scabrid; stipe c. 0.3 mm. long. Stigmas 3. Nut c. 1.5 mm. long, trigonous, ovoid, light brown.