Leaves linear, 10--35 cm, 4--13 mm wide at middle, veins 15--37. Scapes 5--20, 20--60 cm, 4--6-ribbed; sheath 4--12 cm; receptacle glabrous; heads subglobose, ca. 6.5 mm in diam., glaucous, base truncate; involucral bracts straw-colored, obovate, 2.2--2.4 mm in diam., rigid, abaxially white clavate hairy; floral bracts obovate to obovate-cuneate, 2--2.5 mm, abaxially hairy toward apex. Male flowers: sepals spathelike, glabrous, laterally winged, apex (2 or)3-lobed or occasionally truncate; petals (2 or)3, linear, apex pubescent, gland usually indistinct; anthers (4--)6, black. Female flowers: sepals (2 or)3, free, glabrous, posterior one smaller than others, sometimes reduced or absent, wingless, lateral ones boatlike, winged; petals (2 or)3, linear, unequal, membranous, occasionally villous at center, apex white clavate hairy; ovary (2 or)3-loculed; style (2 or)3-cleft. Seeds ovoid, 0.6--0.7 mm; testa hexagonally reticulate, prickles 1 per cell, T-shaped. Fl. and fr. Aug--Mar.
