Perennials. Rhizomes short, thick, woody, diageotropic. Culms sparsely tufted, 15-50 cm tall, flatly cylindric, striate, thicker at base, often covered with old sheaths. Leaves shorter than culm; leaf blade grayish green, 2-3 mm wide, flat, both surfaces sparsely pubescent. Involucral bracts 3-5, leaflike, shorter than or rarely equaling inflorescence. Inflorescence a compound or rarely simple anthela; rays 3-6, longest to 3 cm, unequal. Spikelets solitary, ovoid to ellipsoid, 5-10 × 3-4 mm, many flowered, apex acute to obtuse. Glumes densely arranged, reddish brown, ovate to broadly ovate, ca. 4 mm, adaxially with several veins, apex obtuse and mucronate; basal 2 glumes empty, smaller than fertile glumes and with a slightly longer mucro. Stamens 3; anthers linear, ca. 1.5 mm. Style long and compressed, basally slightly broader, apically ciliate; stigmas 2. Nutlet broadly obovoid to subellipsoid, 1.2-1.5 mm, with fine hexagonal reticulation. Fl. and fr. Apr-Jun.

Slopes, roadsides, grasslands, forests; 300-2600 m. Anhui, N Guangdong, Guangxi, S Guizhou, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, S Jiangsu, N Jiangxi, S Sichuan, Yunnan, Zhejiang [Bangladesh, N India, Kashmir, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam].