Tufted perennial; culms 15–100 cm. high, wiry, woody, almost suffrutescent, bulbous and clad in silky pubescent scales at the base.. Leaf-blades narrowly lanceolate, 2–8 cm. long, 2–4 mm. wide.. Inflorescence of 4–14 long stiff radiating racemes in 1–2 whorls, the whole inflorescence breaking off at maturity; racemes 7–25 cm. long with slender subtriquetrous rhachis, the lower half bare of spikelets and plumose, the upper half bearing distant pairs of appressed spikelets.. Spikelets lanceolate, 2.5–3 mm. long; lower glume a tiny hyaline truncate scale; upper glume as long as the spikelet, 3-nerved, pubescent between the nerves; lower lemma as long as the spikelet, coarsely ribbed with 7 evenly spaced nerves, finely pubescent between the nerves (pubescence usually appressed and obscure, sometimes conspicuously fluffy, rarely glabrous); fruit narrowly ellipsoid, chestnut brown.
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