The specific epithet is the Māori name unarede recorded by Raoul when the plant was first described in 1844.

[1] It is an slender perennial tufted grass, growing to about 45 cm in height.

The leaf blade grows up to 40 in length and 3.5 mm wide, or is tightly inrolled.

It is also a rare inhabitant of Australia's subtropical Lord Howe Island in the Tasman Sea.

[1] On Lord Howe it is recorded as growing in goat dung-affected soil on dry basalt.