Bright green, robust, leafy tufts to 1 m high. Female spikes c. 5, erect on short peduncles, ± 5 cm × 5 mm, dark red-brown. Glumes all deeply emarginate. Utricles obovoid. Stigmas 3.

Tufts robust, lfy, 60–100 cm. tall. Culms 1–2 mm. diam., trigonous, smooth; basal sheaths dark grey-brown or purple-black. Lvs ± = culms, 3–6 mm. wide, double-folded, bright green or yellow-green, margins finely scabrid. Spikes 5–8; terminal 1–(3) spikes male; remaining spikes female, often male at the base, 1.5–5 cm. × 5–7 mm., cylindrical, uppermost spikes approximate and sessile, lower spikes more distant, erect, on short, stiff peduncles. Glumes (excluding awn) ± = utricles, ovate, pinkish brown to chestnut-brown, membr., hyaline margins often very broad, tip deeply emarginate, the light green or brown midrib produced to a scabrid awn. Utricles 2.5–3.5 × c. 1.5 mm., biconvex, obovoid, turgid, us. brown throughout with distinct, paler brown nerves, shining; beak slightly < 1 mm. long, bifid, with very divergent crura, margins and orifice scabrid. Stigmas 3. Nut c. 1.5 mm. long, trigonous, light to dark brown, surface minutely pitted.