Lepidosperma gladiatum

Clump-forming perennial with stout vertical rhizome. Culms rigid, erect, with central biconvex ridge and margins flat or concavo-convex, striate, glabrous, smooth, 45–100 cm high, 5–20 mm wide; margins smooth. Leaf-blades similar in form to culms but less strongly biconvex, as long as or exceeding culms, 8–16 mm wide; sheaths straw-coloured to dark yellow-brown or grey-brown basally, not viscid, shining. Inflorescence ovate or oblong in outline, erect, dense, 4–18 cm long, 3–7 cm diam.; involucral bract shorter than inflorescence. Spikelets numerous, clustered, 6–8 mm long; glumes 5–7, puberulous, red-brown, 3 or 4 lowest empty, c. one-half as long as fertile glumes, obtuse to broad-acute; fertile glumes 6–7 mm long, acute, mucronate; hypogynous scales 6, whitish to yellowish, from one-quarter to one-half length of nut. Nut narrow-ovoid, pale to dark brown, smooth or wrinkled, shining, 3.0–4.0 mm long, 1.5–2.0 mm diam. Flowers spring–summer.