2n = 40

Rhizome stout, long, to 1.5 mm diam., whitish, smooth; cataphylls smooth, grey or whitish; shoots to 5-(10) cm, branching several times intravaginally at or above ground. Leaf-sheath shining white below, purplish above, striate, margins membranous, wide, glabrous. Ligule 0.1-0.2 mm, ciliate. Collar glabrous, swollen, recurved, very rarely with 1-2 long hairs. Leaf-blade 5-30 mm, distinctly divergent, folded, abaxially smooth, adaxially scabrid on ribs; margins incurved, thickened and scabrid. Culm to 2 cm, terete to usually laterally compressed, ridged, usually scabrid on ridges below spikelet otherwise glabrous, bearing 1 leaf or leaf reduced to sheath, and often a minute bract above. Spikelet 1, occasionally 2-3, peduncles narrowly ovate, lanceolate, c. 1 mm wide. Glumes indurated, lower usually absent, if present much reduced, occasionally complete and awned, to c. 4.5 mm, upper glume (3)-3.5-7 mm, minutely scabrid above and on margins, ± golden to golden-brown, nerves 7-9, very weak; awn 0.2-2.5 mm, scabrid. Lemma 3-4.5 mm, ovate-lanceolate, 1-nerved, firm-hyaline, shallowly bifid, glabrous. Palea 3-4 mm. Anthers c. 2 mm. Gynoecium: ovary 0.5-0.75 mm; stigma-styles 7-7.5 mm. Caryopsis 1.5-1.75 mm; embryo 0.75 mm; pericarp detaching with 0.25-0.35 mm beak. Protogynous.

Plant perennial. Rhizome internodes mostly in series of three — 2 very short and 1 long — the three internodes 1-2 cm long. Cataphylls rounded to more or less truncate, Ungulate, distinctly umbonate. Erect culms arise from short internodes, 2-5 cm high above ground, branching several times at and above ground. Branching intravaginal; 2-3 internodes elongated, uppermost, 0.7-3 cm long. Leaf sheath 5-15 mm long, glabrous finely striated. Ligule 0.2-0.4 mm long, ciliar. Leaf collar distinct, more or less long-ciliate, hairs up to 5 mm long, cushion based. Blade more or less distinctly divergent, folded, subulate, glabrous. Vascular bundles about 11. Sclerenchyma bilateral, interrupted between bundles; connected with primary bundles, more or less free from secondary bundles. Peduncle 1-2 cm (seldom more) long, finely striated and minutely scabrid above. Spikelet solitary (occasionally 2) terminal, erect, 3.5-5.0 mm long, lanceolate. Glume 4 mm long, ovate indurated, minutely hairy above, more or less golden to golden-brown, about 7- nerved, nerves very weak. Lemma about 3.5 mm long ovate-lanceolate, more or less conduplicate, 1-nerved, firm hyaline, glabrous. Anthers about 2 mm long. Stigmas long, plumose (Fig. 1).