Dense, very stiff, rhizomatous tussocks, to 100 cm, with pungent leaves usually overtopping culms. Leaf-sheath light brown to grey-brown, coriaceous, striate, glabrous. Ligule 0.7-1 mm, asymmetrical, stiffly membranous, ciliate. Leaf-blade 10-60 cm ×c. 1 mm diam., inrolled, wiry, abaxially glabrous, adaxially densely minutely pubescent. Culm (8)-12-50 cm, erect, internodes glabrous. Panicle (3.5)-6-25 cm, stiff, erect, contracted, almost spike-like; rachis glabrous, branches erect, pedicels with dense stiff minute hairs and prickle-teeth. Spikelets 9-16 mm, 3-6-flowered, greenish brown. Glumes almost equal, coriaceous, elliptic-lanceolate, acute, minutely prickle-toothed above, densely prickle-toothed on keel; lower 5.5-10 mm, (3)-5-nerved, upper 6.5-11 mm, 3-(5)-nerved; margins finely prickle-toothed. Lemma 6-11.5 mm, 5-7-(9)-nerved, elliptic-lanceolate, obtuse or with shortly excurrent midnerve, ± covered with very dense, stiff prickle-teeth, often minutely hairy on nerves below. Palea 5-8 mm, subcoriaceous, keels very densely, short, stiff hairy, interkeel and flanks minutely prickle-toothed. Lodicules c. 1.5 mm, bilobed, ciliate. Callus ringed by short, stiff hairs. Rachilla sparsely to densely hairy especially near apex. Anthers (1.5)-2-3 mm. Gynoecium: ovary c. 2 mm; stigma-styles c. 3 mm. Caryopsis 2.5-4 ×c. 1 mm. 2n= 28. Plate 5B.
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