Slender tufted perennial with very short rhizome. Culms slender, rigid, ± terete, nodeless, striate, glabrous, minutely scabrous to smooth, 20–100 cm high, 0.8–1.5 mm diam. Leaves basal; blade culm-like, as long as to slightly exceeding culm, 0.7–1.5 mm diam., or reduced; sheath reddish or straw-coloured (but then usually with reddish tinges), dull. Inflorescence interrupted-oblong in outline, narrow, erect, 4–30 cm (rarely to 60 cm) long, to 1.5 cm diam.; lowest involucral bract much shorter than inflorescence. Spikelets few, 1-flowered, 4.5–8 mm long; glumes 2–4, acute, red-brown to grey-brown, margins glabrous; fertile glumes 4.5–7 mm long. Nut ovoid or globose, ± smooth, minutely hispid or papillose at extreme apex only, ± shining, yellow-brown to black, 2.5–3.6 mm long, 1.3–1.8 mm diam. Flowers spring–summer.