Tufted perennial. Culms erect, rigid, ± scabrous, terete, nodeless, 4–18 cm high, c. 0.5 mm diam. Leaves with blade to 12 cm long, often curled at apex; sheath red-brown to dark grey-brown, smooth or striate, shining to dull; mouth long-ciliate to woolly; ligule present. Inflorescence of 1 spikelet, ± erect; lowest involucral bract to 4 cm long. Spikelet narrow-ovate, acute, 2–4-flowered, 10–13 mm long; glumes 4–6, lowest 1–3 empty, long-acute, dark brown, shining, with ciliate to woolly margins; fertile glumes 6–9 mm long; hypogynous bristles 6, densely plumose, to twice as long as nut. Nut trigonous, ellipsoid, minutely reticulate, glabrous, glistening, red-brown, 1.5–2.2 mm long, 0.8–1 mm diam. Flowers late winter–summer.
