Tall, very coarse, erect perennial tussock with a stout rootstock; branching extravaginal; cataphylls numerous. Leaf-sheath to 5 cm, with retrorse long weak hairs, terminating in a small tuft of white hairs to 1.5 mm. Ligule to 0.5 mm, shortly ciliate. Leaf-blade to 30 cm × 5 mm, flat or weakly rolled, scabrid, dense long hairs abaxially, adaxially and on margins retrorse long hairs. Culm to 2 m, stout, smooth, compressed, nodes densely pubescent, internodes densely pubescent below nodes, glabrous elsewhere. Panicle to 40 cm, very open, verticels widely spaced; branches long, branches and pedicels shortly scabrid. Glumes unequal, 3-nerved, becoming purple-suffused, somewhat spreading, minutely scabrid, tip erose or apiculate, < awn column; lower to 14 mm, upper to 9 mm. Lemma to 6 mm, fuscous, clothed in white hairs, lobes short (0.2 mm); coma to 3.5 mm; awn to 35 mm, stiffly hairy, 2-geniculate, column strongly twisted to 10 mm, less strongly so to 7 mm above, arista to 20 mm. Palea firm, darker than lemma, internerve hairs long, apex erose. Callus 1 mm, off-white hairs to 2 mm. Lodicules 3, 2 anterior to 1.5 mm, posterior to 1 mm. Anthers to 5.2 mm in chasmogamous flowers, to 1.5 mm in cleistogamous flowers, penicillate.
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Plants to c. 1 m tall. Leaves: ligule 0.3–1.5 mm long, truncate, sometimes shortly laciniate; auricles usually thickened, spreading, pubescent; blade expanded or weakly rolled, 2–5 mm wide, ribbed or slightly ribbed, scaberulous to pubescent. Inflorescence 10–30 cm long, contracted (although open at anthesis). Glumes unequal, 10–19 mm long, acuminate. Callus 1.2–2.3 mm long, sharp, curved, with hairs slightly darker than those on lemma. Lemma turbinate to oblanceolate-cylindrical, slightly gibbous at maturity, 5–8 mm long, tuberculate, scabrous with antrorse hooks at apex, reddish brown at maturity, with hairs yellow to orange at maturity; coma 2–3 (–5) mm long; lobes minute; awn 30–50 mm long, scaberulous, with column 13–20 mm long. Palea broadly acuminate. Lodicules 3; abaxial narrowly cuneate to oblong; paleal narrowly triangular.
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