Robust perennial, 1-3 m high. Leaf-blade 15-85 cm long, 5-15 (-25) mm wide, scabrid above, harshly scabrid on the margins, the lower surface covered with brittle irritant hairs. Inflorescence a much-branched leafy panicle with clusters of branches subtended by leaf-like spathes, the individual racemes supported by spatheoles comprising an inflated obovate sheath bearing a blade reduced to an awn-like cusp. Racemes 2-4 cm long, male or male above with a solitary female spikelet (rarely a second present) at the base. Male spikelets solitary or paired, 6-9 (-10.5) mm long; female spikelet 5-6 mm long, oblong, pallid or white.