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Spikelets 3–10 × 1.2–2 mm, narrowly oblong, laterally compressed, 4–22-flowered, the lemmas disarticulating from below upwards, the rhachilla fragile and breaking off above the glumes soon after the lower lemmas have begun to fall; glumes subequal, 1.2–2 mm long, reaching to just beyond the middle of the adjacent lemmas, keeled, lanceolate in profile, glabrous, acuminate at the apex; lemmas 1.5–2 mm long, keeled, ovate in profile, membranous with distinct lateral nerves, diverging from the rhachilla at c. 45°, those in opposite rows not imbricate, the rhachilla visible between them, grey-green flushed with purple, glabrous, acuminate at the apex, with or without an awn-point up to 0.5 mm long (the smallest spikelets with lemma merely acute or even obtuse and mucronate); palea persistent, glabrous on the flanks, the keels slender, wingless, scaberulous to scabrid; anthers 3, 0.3–0.4 mm long.
Weak tufted perennial to 800(1200) mm high; erect or geniculate; culm without glands below nodes, internodes glabrous to hairy. Leaf blade 100-200 x 3-4 mm; blade and sheath often densely covered with long bulbous-based hairs. Inflorescence consisting of 2-8 dense, usually globose, ovoid to elliptic spikelet clusters, distant on main axis except near apex and at the base; lowest branches not whorled; pedicel short, hairy. Spikelet 3-10 x 1.2-2.0 mm, elliptic to narrowly oblong; breaking up from base upwards, rachilla fragile, breaking off above glumes soon after lemmas begin to fall; glumes subequal, lanceolate in side view; lowest lemma 1.5-2.0 mm long, acuminate, awn present (up to 0.5 mm long) or absent, lateral nerves distinct; palea persistent, keels slender, wingless, scaberulous to scabrid; anthers 3, 0.3-0.4 mm long; caryopsis elliptic.
Weak, tufted perennial, up to 800 mm high, erect or geniculate. Leaf blade 100-200 x 3-4 mm; ligule a fringe of hairs. Inflorescences consisting of 2-8 dense, distant clusters. Spikelets 3-10 x 1.2-2.0 mm, elliptic to narrowly oblong, laterally compressed; breaking up from base upwards, rachilla breaking off above glumes soon after lemmas begin to fall; glumes shorter than spikelet, 1-nerved. Florets many; lemma entire, 3-nerved; palea keels scaberulous; anthers 3, 0.3-0.4 mm long. Flowering time May-July.
Caespitose perennial without rhizomes or stolons; culms up to 120 cm tall, erect or ascending, unbranched, glabrous at the nodes (but often pilose on the internodes), eglandular; basal leaf sheaths glabrous, chartaceous, terete, eglandular, persistent; ligule a line of hairs; leaf laminas 10–20 cm × 3–4 mm, linear, usually flat, loosely pilose with tubercle-based hairs, eglandular.
Panicle 6–30 cm long, linear, the axis glabrous to hirsute, the spikelets on short barbate pedicels in 2–8 globular or ovoid clusters 0.5–2 cm in diameter, these distant along the central axis, but often the uppermost confluent and sometimes the lowermost branched, the short primary branches not in whorls, terminating in a fertile spikelet, eglandular.
Caryopsis c. 0.5 mm long, broadly elliptic.
