Stems to 70 cm high, slender. Leaves to 3 mm wide, flat; sheaths often tinged with reddish-purple; ligule ± 4 mm long, much longer than broad. Inflorescence ± 3 cm long, of up to 8 sessile greenish-brown contiguous spikes; bracts, if present, setaceous. Spikes androgynous, male flowers at top. Glumes < utricles, ovate, acute to acuminate, reddish-brown with green midrib. Utricles 4-5 × 2 mm, narrowly ovate, greenish, corky and often furrowed when dry but not nerved at base, gradually tapered to a beak ± 1.5 mm long with finely scabrid margins. Stigmas 2. Nut broad-oblong.