Rhizome thick, woody, rigid. Culms lateral, 35-50 cm tall, obtusely trigonous, smooth, clothed at base with brown bladeless sheaths. Leaves surpassing culm, blades pale green, broadly linear, 5-17 mm wide, leathery, upper margins scabrous, apex acuminate. Involucral bracts shortly bladed, shorter than subtending spike, long sheathing. Spikes 4-6; terminal spike male, narrowly cylindric, 3-6 cm, pedunculate; lateral spikes androgynous, male part usually equaling female part, cylindric, 4-7 cm, densely flowered, with slender, scabrous peduncles. Female glumes light yellow-brown, ovate-lanceolate, green 3-veined costa excurrent into a mucro. Utricles yellow-brown, longer than glume, obovate, subinflated trigonous, 5-6 mm (including beak), membranous, glabrous or sparsely hispid, many veined, base gradually narrowed, apex abruptly contracted into a cylindric long beak, beak slightly curved, deeply 2-lobed at orifice. Nutlets castaneous, tightly enveloped, obovate, ca. 2 mm (excluding beak), trigonous with angles constricted at middle, base curved stipitate, apical beak slender, slightly curved; style persistent, base hardly thickened; stigmas 3. Fl. and fr. Apr-May.

● Forests, shady and moist places or rock crevices along valleys, cliffs along streamsides; 800-2200 m. Chongqing, Guangxi, Guizhou, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Shaanxi, Sichuan, Yunnan, Zhejiang.