Tufted perennial. Culms erect, rigid, terete, grooved, smooth or scabrous, nodeless, 10–40 cm high, 0.4–0.8 mm diam. Leaves with blade to 1.5 cm long; sheath red-brown, slightly scabrous or papillose, ± dull; mouth long-ciliate or woolly; ligule present. Inflorescence obconical, with 1–14 spikelets in 1 or 2 clusters, 0.5–1.5 cm long; lowest involucral bract to 2 cm long. Spikelets narrow-ovate to linear, acute, 1–2-flowered, 4–7 mm long; glumes 5–9, lowest 4–7 empty, acute, very dark red-brown to blackish above, straw-coloured near base, dull, with margins woolly at least near apex, uppermost glumes may be glabrous; fertile glumes 4–5 mm long; hypogynous bristles absent. Nut trigonous, obovoid to ellipsoid, scarcely 3-ribbed, minutely wrinkled and papillose, glabrous, dull, red-brown with darker patches, 1.4–1.8 mm long, 0.8–1.1 mm diam. Flowers spring–summer.
GipP, EGU. Also Qld, NSW. Confined to near-coastal heaths and forest clearings in the far east (eastward from about Wingan Inlet).
