Sessile spikelet lanceolate; callus 1–2 mm long, broadly cuneate; inferior glume 4–6 mm long, glabrous on the back or almost so, with a conspicuous brown oil-streak bordering each keel, entire or bidentate at the apex, the teeth up to 2 mm long.
Racemes 3–12 cm long, the branched culms bearing 3–20 axillary racemes gathered into a lax spathate false panicle; rhachis internodes glabrous or appressed-pubescent, rarely with spreading hairs up to 2 mm long.
Leaf laminas 20–30 cm × 1–3 mm, narrow, often involute, mainly cauline, filiform to subulate at the apex.
Pedicelled spikelet 4–5 mm long, lanceolate, glabrous, entire.
Loosely caespitose perennial; culms up to 150 cm high.