Small, loosely mat-forming perennial. Culms very slender and flaccid, decumbent, usually branched and rooting from nodes, 4–20 cm high, 0.3–0.5 mm diam. Leaves with blade to 3 cm long; sheath straw-coloured to reddish, striate, ± shining; mouth glabrous; ligule absent. Inflorescence with 2–6 nodes, each with 1 or 2 spikelets, 3–8 cm long; lowest involucral bract to 2 cm long. Spikelets ovate, acute, 1–2-flowered, 2–4 mm long; glumes 3–5, lowest 1 or 2 empty, acute, whitish to dark red-brown, ± shining, with glabrous margins, midvein often scabrous; fertile glumes 2–3.5 mm long; hypogynous bristles 6 (rarely fewer), not plumose, shorter than nut. Nut trigonous, ellipsoid, 3-ribbed, minutely pitted or reticulate to smooth, glabrous, glistening or shining, white to straw-coloured, 0.8–1.3 mm long, 0.6–0.8 mm diam. Flowers spring–summer.
LoM, Wim, GleP, VVP, VRiv, GipP, OtP, WaP, CVU, GGr, DunT, NIS, EGL, EGU, WPro, HSF, HNF, OtR, Strz, MonT, HFE, VAlp. Also WA, SA, Qld, NSW, Tas. New Zealand, Mariana Islands, Malesia. In damp, often shaded sites (creek margins, swamps etc.) in cooler parts of the State, extending from near sea-level to the subalps.
