Perennial forming large tussocks, base clothed in papery old sheaths. Culms stout, canelike, 1–2.5 m tall, 3–5 mm in diam., internodes long, 2–3-noded, nodes woolly with cream hairs. Leaf sheaths shorter than internodes, loose, pilose or glabrescent; leaf blades linear, flat or convolute, rigid, 15–30 cm × 5–8 mm, glabrous or hairy, apex finely acuminate; ligule 0.3–0.5 mm. Panicle usually contracted, dense, infrequently looser, 15–35 cm; central axis and branches scabrid-hispidulous; branches 2.5–10 cm, fasciculate in middle part, ascending; pedicels scabrid, apex often with stiff bristles. Spikelets 6–8 mm, purple; glumes setose on raised veins; lower glume 6–6.5 mm; upper glume as long as spikelet; lower floret staminate, as long as lower glume; upper lemma 2-lobed, awned from sinus, 2 slender erect bristles arising from lobes; bristles ca. 1 mm; awn geniculate with brown twisted column, 5–6 mm; callus hairs ca. 1/3 length of lemma. Fl. and fr. Apr–Aug.
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