Compactly tufted perennials. Culms 50–90 cm high, unbranched or branched, terete or compressed; internodes smooth, glabrous. Leaves: ligule to 0.3 mm long; blade involute or flat or conduplicate, sometimes setaceous, sometimes flexuose at maturity, 20–25 cm long, to 3 mm wide. Inflorescences 14–30 cm long, 1–2 cm wide, loosely contracted or interrupted or ±open; branches loosely appressed, 4–11.5 cm long, naked at base. Glumes usually slightly inverse, 5.5–9 mm long, 1-nerved, glabrous or hairy, scabrous or scaberulous; lower glume caducous, entire, acute, awned; upper glume obtuse, notched or entire, aristulate. Lemma 3.5–5.5 mm long, shorter than both glumes, involute, smooth, without an articulation or pseudoarticulation; groove smooth or tuberculate; column absent; awns slightly but visibly unequal, straight; median awn 8–15 mm long; lateral awns 6–12 mm long. Caryopsis furrowed in T.S., 3–4 mm long, more than twice embryo length.
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