Perennials. Rhizomes to 2 mm in diam., creeping, covered with ovate scales. Culms solitary, 13-35 cm tall, flatly 3-angled, apical part scabrid, with 4-6 leaves and 2 nearly leafless sheaths at base. Leaves shorter than to nearly as long as culm; sheath rust-colored, adaxially membranous, not ciliate, mouth obliquely split; ligule absent; leaf blade 1.2-2 mm wide, margin flat to incurved and finely serrulate, apex acute. Involucral bracts 1-3, subulate or glumelike, shorter than inflorescence, apex with a long awns. Inflorescence a simple anthela, 1.5-2.5 cm, with 2-7 spikelets. Spikelets oblong, ellipsoid, or ovoid, 6-10 × 2.5-4 mm, 9-flowered, apex acute. Glumes chestnut-brown, broadly ovate, ca. 4 mm, 3-veined forming an abaxial green keel, margin membranous and white, apex obtuse to subacute; basal 2 glumes with an apical short hard mucro. Stamens 3; anthers linear-oblong, ca. 2 mm, ca. 1/4 as long as filaments. Ovary oblong, 3-sided, basally slightly narrower; style 3-sided, not ciliate, basally conic; stigmas 3, nearly as long as style. Nutlet brown, broadly obovoid, ca. 1 mm or more, flat to convex, finely verruculose. Fl. and fr. May-Sep.

Roadsides, coniferous forests, sunny dry places on mountain summits; near sea level to 3000 m. Anhui, Fujian, SE Henan, Jiangsu, Shandong, Yunnan, Zhejiang [Japan, Kashmir, Korea, Nepal, Philippines].