Perennial from tough rootstock, rhizomatous; basal sheaths crowded, pale yellow, papery, strongly keeled. Culms tufted, 30–100 cm tall. Leaf sheaths glabrous; leaf blades narrowly linear, flat or folded, tough, 15–25 × 0.2–0.4 cm, scaberulous, often with scattered long tubercle-based hairs especially on adaxial surface, midrib white, apex finely acuminate; ligule 1.5–4 mm. Inflorescence a sparse spathate panicle, spathate clusters few, often purplish; spatheoles very slender, terete, 2.5–4 cm; racemes paired or frequently branching, then subdigitate along a short axis, 2–4 cm, finally reflexing, lowest spikelet pair homogamous; peduncle glabrous or pilose; rachis internodes and pedicels slender, ciliate, tips cupular, irregularly toothed. Sessile spikelet narrowly oblong, 4.5–6.5 mm; lower glume leathery, deeply to shallowly concave, keels rounded below middle, sharp and scabrid above, glabrous or puberulous in groove, veinless or 1-veined above groove, apex 2-toothed; upper glume awnless; upper lemma 2-lobed, lobes filiform; awn 1–1.6 cm. Pedicelled spikelet 4.5–6 mm, awnless. Fl. and fr. Jun–Nov.
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