Tufted annual or perennial. Culms trigonous, smooth, 5–60 cm high, 1–1.5 mm diam. Leaves not septate-nodulose, shorter or longer than culms, mostly 1–2 mm wide. Inflorescence simple or subcompound with 2–6 primary branches to 5 cm long, or head-like; spikes ovoid to broad-ovoid, to 3 cm diam.; involucral bracts leaf-like, 2–4 exceeding inflorescence. Spikelets flattened, 5–20 per spike, 10–25 mm long, 1.5–2.5 mm wide in side view, 12–50-flowered; rachilla not winged, persistent; glumes obtuse, with 3-nerved keel, yellow-brown to very dark brown with hyaline margins, 1.5–2.5 mm long, 1–1.5 mm wide; stamens 2. Nut biconvex, obovate to elliptic, dark brown to black, less than one-half as long as glume, 0.8–1.2 mm long, 0.4–0.6 mm wide. Flowers spring–summer.
Also Qld, NSW. Malesia, Asia, Africa. Known in Victoria from three records collected in 1941, only from open swampy situations in the far north-east (Yackandandah and Tintaldra areas).
Source:
Wilson, K.L. (1994). Cyperaceae. In: Walsh, N.G.; Entwisle, T.J., Flora of Victoria Vol. 2, Ferns and Allied Plants, Conifers and Monocotyledons, pp. 238–356. Inkata Press, Melbourne.
