Small - flowered nutsedge

C. difformis varies in height from 6 to 80 cm. The stems are smooth, triangular, slightly winged and 0.7-3.0 mm thick. The roots are numerous, fibrous and reddish. The leaves are smooth (or slightly scabrid on the midrib and margin), flat, linear, 5-25 cm long or often two-thirds of the plant height, 2-6 mm wide, sometimes reduced to sheaths. Sheaths are tubular, united, green to reddish-brown and without leaf blades at the base.

The inflorescence consists of dense, globose, umbellate heads, simple or compound, 5-15 mm in diameter, with 10-60 stellately spreading spikelets. The inflorescence is rather loose, simple or compound, subtended by 1-4 leaf-like bracts, one of which can be up to 25 cm long. The umbel rays are 1-5 cm long, some long and some long peduncled.