Robust, tufted or tussock-forming. Flowering culms (30–) 60–100 cm high, branched. Leaves cauline; basal sheaths rounded or weakly carinate, tight; orifice glabrous; external ligule absent; blade flat, 3–20 cm long, 1.5–5 mm wide. Inflorescences usually digitate or subdigitate, or rarely with branches whorled; branches 2–6 (–10), 5–15 cm long, rigid. Glumes: lower glume 2–3.5 mm long, muticous or aristulate; upper glume 3.5–7.3 mm long, with awn usually less than 1 mm long. Callus 0.6–1.3 mm long. Basal lemma narrowly lanceolate, 5.5–7.4 (–9) mm long, acuminate, entire or bidentate, cartilaginous, scaberulous or scabrous; awn much longer than lemma body, 9–14 mm long. Basal palea acute or obtuse.
Usually on light-textured soils such as sandy loams, but also known fromheavy-textured red earths and skeletal soils; often in seasonally wet areassuch as creek beds, with Eucalyptuscamaldulensis or Melaleuca, or in woodlands withPoplar Box (Eucalyptus populnea), Wilga (Geijera parviflora), Gidgee (Acacia cambagei) or Mulga (Acacia aneura), or in mallee or shrublands with Atriplex, Maireana, Acacia and Triodia; often common but never dominant in the understorey.
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