Tufted perennial with short rhizome. Culms rigid, erect, subterete with 1 acute, smooth, flattened margin, or irregularly angular, or biconvex with 1 margin flattened and acute (smooth or scarcely scabrous) and the other rounded, or rarely with both margins acute and smooth, irregularly striate, glabrous, smooth, often reddish near base, 20–60(–100) cm high, 0.7–1.5 mm diam. Leaf-blades subterete to flat, shorter than culms, 1.0–2.5 mm wide, or occasionally reduced; sheaths straw-coloured, often with reddish tinges, to grey-brown, not viscid, ± dull. Inflorescence ovate to oblong in outline, erect, 2–6 cm long, 1–2.5 cm diam.; involucral bract shorter than inflorescence. Spikelets ± few, 6–9 mm long; glumes 4–6, slightly scabrous, red-brown to grey-brown, the 3 lowest empty, shorter than fertile glumes, obtuse to acute; fertile glumes 5–7.5 mm long, acute to long-acute; hypogynous scales 6, whitish, from one-fifth to one-half length of nut. Nut narrow-ellipsoid to obovoid, straw-coloured to olive-green, shining, 3.0–4.0 mm long, 1.3–1.8 mm diam. Flowers spring–summer.
Wim, GleP, VVP, VRiv, GipP, OtP, WaP, Gold, CVU, GGr, DunT, EGL, EGU, WPro, HSF, HNF, OtR. Also SA, NSW. On sandy soils, in coastal headland heath and inland heath, woodland and open-forest.
