Japan Flora: Culms stout, 60-100 cm. long, leafy; cauline leaves elongate, stiff, 8-15 mm. wide, long- attenuate, the sheaths loosely enveloping the culm, usually brownish and somewhat lustrous at base; inflorescence termi- nal, decompound, very large, with smooth stiff rays to 10 cm. long, the bracts 3 or 4, leaflike; spikelets sessile, ovoid, obtuse, reddish brown, in clusters of 4-10; scales membranous, 1-1.2 mm. long, ovate-deltoid, obtuse; achenes slightly shorter than the scale, flattened, obovate, pale, the bristles 0-3, slightly longer than the achene, erect, slender, ascending-scabrous above the middle. 

Kyushu (Hyuga Prov.; Tanegashima) Ryukyus, Formosa, China, and Malaysia.