Tufted perennial from a stout ascending rhizome.. Culms 60–120 cm. high, moderately robust, erect or ascending, branched at the lower nodes.. Leaf-blades flat or loosely folded, 15–50 cm. long, 4–7 mm. wide, pilose on the upper surface towards the ligule, glabrous towards the tip and on the lower surface, the margins scabrid only near the tip, the tip subacute; ligule 0.6–1 mm. long, a ciliolate membrane.. Inflorescence composed of 4–15 spikes clustered towards the top of the culm, the upper spikes subdigitate; spikes up to 12 cm. long, slender, ascending or occasionally widely spreading.. Spikelets 5–10-flowered, elliptic to narrowly elliptic, 5–8.3 mm. long, pale green tinged with grey or olivaceous; glumes 1-nerved, obtuse to subacute, the lower lanceolate in profile, 1–2.2 mm. long, the upper narrowly oblong in profile, 2–3.6 mm. long; lemmas lanceolate-oblong in profile, 2.5–3.8 mm. long, lateral nerves often obscure, tip obtuse to subacute.. Grain broadly elliptic, 1.2–1.3 mm. long, concave on the hilar side, finely striate.
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