Stout perennial, (30-) 40-60 (-75) cm tall, pale green, with creeping rootstock. Basal leaves reduced to sheaths only; upper leaf usually as long as the stem and almost equally stout, acuminate, pungent-tipped, almost cylindrical to subcompressed with wider airspaces within. Inflorescence umbellately decompound, terminal, erect, often c. 10 cm long, 6 cm broad with divaricate branches; floral heads globose, usually 20-40 flowered; lowest bract 1/3-1/2 the inflorescence, Flowers c. 2 (-2.5) mm long, brownish very congested on the florallhead; outer perianth segments narrowly oblong-lanceolate, acute; inner slightly broader, subacute or acute. Stamens 6. slightly shorter than the perianth with filaments slightly longer than anthers. Capsules ovoid-prismatic, obtuse, minutely beaked, 3-celled, as long or hardly exceeding the perianth, c. 1 mm broad when mature, darker brown, shining, 10-16 seeded; seeds minute, ovoid.

Fl.Per.: June-July

Type: Described from S.Africa (Cape of Good Hope).

Distribution: Pakistan, Iran, Arabia, N. & S.Africa.

A tall, robust plant of marshy places in our hilly regions, especially Baluchistan. It has also been recorded from Kashmir by Stewart (l.c.). Its occurrence in Sind is doubtful, and Stocks 1093, (reported to be from Sind by Boissier, l.c.), is no doubt from Baluchistan (Keishan), bearing the same number.