Loosely tufted robust perennials. Culms 60–120 cm high, strongly branched, terete or compressed; internodes smooth, glabrous, glaucous. Leaves: ligule to 0.5 mm long; blade involute or flat, not coiled or flexuose at maturity, to 30 cm long, to 3.5 mm wide. Inflorescences 20–30 cm long, 2–3 cm wide, densely congested and spicate or loosely contracted; branches loosely appressed, to 6.5 cm long, bearing spikelets from base. Glumes subequal, glabrous, smooth; lower glume caducous, 10–16 mm long, entire, aristulate or awned, 1-nerved; upper glume 12–16 mm long, notched, aristulate, 1–3-nerved. Lemma 10–12 mm long, shorter than both glumes, involute, smooth, without an articulation or pseudoarticulation; groove tuberculate (not always obvious); column absent; awns slightly but visibly unequal; median awn gently curved, 22–36 mm long; lateral awns 17–31 mm long, flattened. Caryopsis furrowed in T.S., 7–8 mm long, more than twice embryo length.
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