Plants mostly (10-)20-40 cm. Culms stiff, slender. Spikelets broadly ovoid. Flowers: perianth bristles reaching at least to tubercle base, often slightly beyond tip. Fruit body distinctly transversely wavy rugose, with intervals of fine or coarse rectangular alveolae; tubercle depressed conic or patelliform, nearly covering apex of truncate summit of fruit body, apex apiculate.

Fruiting spring-fall. Depressions on and around sandy (usually granite) outcrops; 0-300 m; Ala., Ga., S.C.