Loosely tufted perennials. Culms 60–153 cm high, branched, terete; internodes smooth, glabrous, glaucous; nodes glabrous. Leaves: ligule 0.5–1 mm long; blade flat, sometimes flexuose at maturity, to 40 cm long, to 4.5 mm wide. Inflorescences 15–37 cm long, 2–4 cm wide, densely congested and spicate or loosely contracted; branches loosely appressed, to 15 cm long, naked at base. Glumes inverse, glabrous; lower glume caducous, 10–25 mm long, acute, entire, aristulate, 1 (rarely sub 3)-nerved; upper glume 7.6–15 mm long, obtuse or acute, notched, awnless, 1-nerved. Lemma 5.4–13.5 mm long, shorter than both glumes, involute, smooth or scabrous apically, without an articulation or pseudoarticulation; groove tuberculate; column absent; awns slightly but visibly unequal, straight or gently curved; median awn 18–48 mm long; lateral awns 14–37 mm long, flattened. Caryopsis furrowed in T.S., 5–8.3 mm long, more than twice embryo length.
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