Densely tufted perennial with numerous old blades flattened and coiled at the base of the plants; culms 60-100 cm. high, relatively slender, glabrous, or scabrous below the panicle; sheaths longer than the internodes, glabrous; blades 15-30 cm. long, 1-3 mm. wide, tapering to a long involute point, glabrous beneath, sca-berulous above, with thickened scabrous margins; panicles 10-30 cm. long, narrow, dense, somewhat interrupted, the branches ascending or appressed, rebranching from near the base, the branchlets appressed and dense, giving the panicle a lobed appearance, the lower internodes as much as 3 cm. long, the upper ones gradually shortened; glumes 8-10 mm. long, narrow, acuminate or awn-pointed, the first very scabrous; lemma 3.5-4 mm. long, glabrous, the slender slightly twisted column 2-3 mm. long, the callus blunt, densely pubescent, about 0.4 mm. long; awns 10-12 mm., rarely 15 mm., long, the central slightly longer than the lateral ones, all loosely coiled together at the base, divergent.
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