Tall, tussock-forming perennial with short rhizome. Culms rigid, erect, biconvex, or convex on 1 face and flat on the other, or margins flat with a central biconvex ridge, ± striate, glabrous, smooth, 70–180 cm high, 5–15 mm wide; margins scabrous. Leaf-blades ± flat, shorter than culms, 6–20 mm wide; sheaths reddish, straw-coloured above, usually not viscid, ± shining. Inflorescence ovate to oblong in outline, with branches drooping, 18–65 cm long, 5–20 cm diam.; involucral bract shorter than inflorescence. Spikelets numerous, 3–7 mm long; glumes 4–7, often mucronate, puberulous, red-brown, the 1 or 2 lowest empty, shorter than fertile glumes, acute; fertile glumes 3–6 mm long, acute to long-acute; hypogynous scales 6, white to pale brown, from one-quarter to one-third length of nut. Nut ovoid to narrow-ellipsoid, greyish to red-brown, smooth, shining, 2.0–3.0 mm long, 1.3–1.5 mm diam. Flowers spring–summer.
Wim, GleP, VVP, GipP, OtP, WaP, Gold, CVU, GGr, DunT, EGL, EGU, WPro, HSF, HNF, OtR, Strz, HFE, VAlp. Qld, NSW, Tas. Damp areas in forests, often near rainforest.
