Machaerina planifolia

Perennial with long rhizome. Culms rigid, oval to nearly flat, nodeless or rarely 1-noded, striate, glabrous, scabrous to smooth, mostly 15–80 (rarely to c. 150) cm high, 1.2–4.0 mm diam. Leaves basal; blade flat or narrow-rhomboid in cross-section, strongly scabrous, broader and shorter than culms, to 6.5 mm wide; sheath pale brown, dull. Inflorescence ovate to oblong in outline, erect, 4–14 cm long, 1–3.5 cm diam.; lowest involucral bract much shorter than inflorescence. Spikelets numerous, 1-flowered, 3.5–4.5 mm long; glumes 3 or 4, long-acute with apex often excurved, unevenly coloured pale to mid-red-brown (rarely darker), margins glabrous or sparsely ciliate; fertile glumes 3.0–3.8 mm long. Nut ovoid to ellipsoid, with irregular coarse reticulations or ridges, ± minutely white-papillose between ridges, minutely hispid or papillose at apex, pale to dark brown, 1.7–2.0 mm long, 0.8–1.1 mm diam. Flowers spring–summer.