Slender annual or tufted perennial, occasionally viscid. Culms triquetrous to terete, often scabrous above, 3–25 cm high, 0.6–1.3 mm diam. Leaves not septate-nodulose, mostly longer than culms, usually curly at the apex, to 3 mm wide. Inflorescence head-like or simple, with 1–4 branches 1–6 cm long; clusters dense to loose, subdigitate, hemispherical to globose, to 3 cm diam.; involucral bracts leaf-like, 2–4 much exceeding inflorescence. Spikelets flattened, 5–15 per cluster, 4–25 mm long, 2.5–4 mm wide in side view, 6–25-flowered; rachilla narrowly to broadly winged; glume spacing 1.3–2.3 mm; spikelet falling as unit, or rachilla persistent; glumes acute to obtuse with straight to excurved mucro to 0.4 mm long, with 2–3-nerved sides, straw-coloured tinged red-brown or evenly red-brown, 1.8–3.7 mm long; stamens 3; style 3-fid. Nut trigonous, narrow-obovoid to very narrow-ellipsoid, pale brown, nearly as long as glume, 1.3–3.2 mm long, 0.5–0.8 mm diam., falling with glume only if spikelet is viscid. Flowers spring–summer.