Compactly tufted robust perennials. Culms 70–200 cm high, branched, terete or compressed; internodes smooth, glaucous. Leaves: ligule 0.3–0.5 mm long; blade conduplicate, flexuose at maturity, to 21 cm long, to 2 mm wide. Inflorescences 30–60 cm long, 2–4 cm wide, densely congested and spicate or loosely contracted; branches loosely appressed, to 9 cm long, bearing spikelets from base. Glumes inverse to subequal, 10–13 mm long, awned, glabrous; lower glume entire, 3–5-nerved; upper glume notched or entire, 1-nerved. Lemma 8.5–13 mm long, shorter than both glumes, involute, smooth or scabrous apically, without an articulation or pseudoarticulation; groove smooth; column absent; awns slightly but visibly unequal, gently curved; median awn 15–36 mm long; lateral awns 11–30 mm long, flattened. Caryopsis furrowed in T.S., 7.5–9 mm long, ±twice embryo length.
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