Perennial, tussocky from a branching rootstock. Culms slender, erect or geniculately ascending, 25–70 cm tall, 3–6-noded, nodes glabrous or appressed bearded. Leaf sheaths keeled, congested at plant base; leaf blades linear, 5–16 × 0.2–0.3 cm, usually sparingly hairy with tubercle-based hairs, apex acuminate; ligule ca. 1 mm. Inflorescence composed of 5–15 racemes, subdigitate or inserted on a brief axis; racemes 3–7 cm, silvery-green or tinged purplish brown; rachis internodes and pedicels ciliate with long white or pinkish silky hairs. Sessile spikelet 4–5 mm; lower glume oblong-lanceolate, usually cartilaginous, sometimes herbaceous, back flat to slightly concave, 5–7-veined, silky-pilose below middle, lacking a pit, margins keeled and stiffly ciliate near apex; awn of upper lemma 1–1.5 cm. Pedicelled spikelet male or barren, subequal to sessile spikelet, glabrous. Fl. and fr. autumn. 2n = 40, 50, 60.
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