Oreobolus furcatus is a densely tufted perennial typically forming large clumps with ascending and branched rhizomes up to 12 cm long, clothed with pale grayish brown remnants of leaf sheaths. The culms are rigid, 3–12 cm tall, and slightly longer than the leaves when fruiting. The leaves are simple and numerous, densely tufted at the apices of rhizomes, somewhat irregularly to regularly 2-ranked. The blades are coriaceous, linear, 2–8 cm long, and 1.5–2.5 mm wide, channeled. The apex is subobtuse to subacute, and the margins are entire. The leaves are 3-veined. The sheaths are yellowish brown to brown, obtusely 3–5-nerved. Stipules are absent. The flowers are in racemose inflorescences, bearing 3–5 spikelets at 1–2 nodes. The involucral bracts are as long as or slightly longer than the subtending spikelets, sheathing at the base. The spikelets are 1-flowered, solitary, or paired on the enclosed to partially exserted peduncle, lanceolate, and 6–8 mm long. There are 4–5 glumes, pale brown with a greenish keel, nearly 2-ranked, and chartaceous lanceolate. The flowers are bisexual (perfect). The perianth scales are 6, maturing dark brown, and oblong-lanceolate. There are no petals. There are three stamens. The ovary is superior, with elongated styles that are 3-cleft at the apex and slightly dilated at the base. The fruit is a dark brown, obovoid, trigonous achene. There is one seed per fruit, with a thin seed coat free from the pericarp, a basal embryo, and abundant endosperm. It forms tussocks in open bogs or open, cloud-swept summits in wet forests between 640-2,320 meters.