Perennials. Roots many, fibrous. Rhizomes short. Culms 1-1.5 m tall, stout, 3-angled, smooth, basally with leaves. Leaves nearly as long as culm; sheath purplish brown, long; leaf blade 6-10 mm wide, margin scabrous. Involucral bracts 3-6, basal ones longer than inflorescence. Inflorescence a compound or decompound anthela; rays 5-10, to 18 cm, unequal in length, each with several raylets. Spikes 1-3 at raylet apex, cylindric or narrowly cylindric, 2-5 cm × 2.5-10 mm, with many spikelets. Spikelets subdistichous, densely or laxly arranged, narrowly oblong-ovoid, 2-6 × 1-1.5 mm, compressed, obliquely spreading, 4-25-flowered; rachilla wings white, linear, narrow, hyaline. Glumes dark grayish brown to yellowish brown, slightly densely imbricate, ovate, 1.5-1.6 mm, slightly shiny, 3-5-veined, keel green, apex obtuse, mucronate, and not excurved. Stamens 3; anthers linear, ca. 1 mm; connective prominent beyond anther apex. Style slender; stigmas 3. Nutlet obovoid to ellipsoid, less than 1/2 as long as subtending glume, 3-sided, smooth. Fl. and fr. Jun-Nov.

Grasslands, pond margins, sandy soil, moist or wet places; near sea level to 1100 m. Anhui, Fujian, Guangdong, S Guizhou, Hainan, E Hubei, Jiangsu, Jilin, Shandong, Taiwan, Zhejiang [Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Japan, Kashmir, Korea, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam; tropical Africa, Australia, Indian Ocean islands].