Tufted perennials; rootbase woolly, knotted. Culms erect, 15–90 cm high, wiry. Leaves mainly glabrous, usually scaberulous; ligule a fringe of hairs, c. 0.8 mm long; blade flat and to 2.5 mm wide or involute, flexuose or stiff. Panicles loose, 5–20 cm long, 1.5–8 cm wide, smooth or scaberulous; branches usually simple, spikelet-bearing except near axil. Spikelets subsessile or shortly pedicellate, oblong or ovate, 2.5–10 mm long, 2–4 mm wide; rachilla straight; florets (5–) 9 (–20), finally loosely overlapping, falling entire from apex downwards. Glumes late-deciduous, ±equal, ovate, 1.2–1.5 mm long, with a thickened keel; margins ciliate. Lemma elliptic to orbicular, 1.7–2.3 mm long, obtuse or truncate, cartilaginous, often gibbous near base, often purple; margins thinner, colourless, ciliate or pilose with tangled hairs in lower half. Palea hyaline; body oblong or obovate, notched, apically ciliolate; keels woolly; flaps almost as wide as body. Stamens 3; anthers 0.7–1.5 mm long. Grain not compressed, trigonous, ellipsoid-ovoid, concavo-convex, 0.5–1.5 mm long.
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A grass which keeps growing from year to year. It grows 20-50 cm tall. It forms spreading clumps. The bases of the clumps form bulbs. They are woolly. The leaves are 4-10 cm long by 0.2-0.3 cm wide. They can be flat or rolled inwards. The stem is 20-50 cm long and slender and smooth. The branched flower head is 10-20 cm long by 3-8 cm wide. It is open and loose. The spikelets are 0.5 cm long and green or purple.
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