Lepidosperma longitudinale

Rhizomatous clump- or more often sward-forming perennial, capable of forming extensive colonies, stout rhizome. Culms rigid but compressible, erect, thickly biconvex, glabrous, smooth, 60–200 cm high, 5–10 mm wide; margins acute but smooth, yellowish. Leaf-blades similar in form to culms but shorter and often less strongly biconvex, 3–10 mm wide; sheaths yellow-brown to grey-brown at base, often reddish near apex (culm bases similarly coloured), not viscid, shining. Inflorescence elongated-oblong in outline, narrow-erect to spreading, dense, 15–50 cm long, 2–8 cm diam.; involucral bract shorter than inflorescence. Spikelets numerous, 6–8 mm long; glumes 5–7, acute, often mucronate, red-brown, the 1–3 lowest empty, shorter than fertile glumes; fertile glumes 5–6 mm long; hypogynous scales 6, whitish, from one-quarter to one-half length of nut. Nut narrow-ellipsoid, pale to dark brown, smooth, shining, 2.5–3.5 mm long, 1.5–1.7 mm diam Flowers spring–summer.