Plants to 1 m tall. Culm nodes 2 or 3, rarely exserted, glabrous to sericeous, thickened. Leaves: sheaths loose, hirsute (uppermost sheaths glabrous); ligule 0.4–0.8 mm long or continuous with sheath margins and to 1.5–4 mm long, ovate to irregularly truncate, ciliate, membranous but slightly thickened; auricles tufted; blade usually expanded with incurved margins or involute, 2–6 mm wide, scabrous and pubescent or hirsute, scarcely to deeply ribbed on adaxial surface. Inflorescence to 40 cm long, open, dense; spikelets gaping. Glumes unequal, 7–12 mm long, acute or acuminate, but tips easily torn. Callus 1.5–2.5 mm long, fine and straight, sericeous. Lemma 4–7 mm long, very finely granular, except over apex of midnerve where tuberculate, red to black-brown at maturity, with white hairs, sparser at apex; coma obscure or absent; lobes 1 or 2, to 0.2 mm long; awn (40–) 60–90 mm long, with column (11–) 14–18 (–21) mm long, densely pubescent or villous with spreading hairs, and bristle gently falcate, scaberulous. Palea 0.3–0.5 mm shorter than lemma, obtuse. Lodicules 2, linear-spathulate.
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