Tufted perennials. Culms 70–85 cm high, wiry. Leaves mostly glabrous and smooth; ligule 0.2–0.3 mm long; blade usually involute (rarely flat), straight, to 2.6 mm wide, capillary towards apex. Panicles open, linear or lanceolate, interrupted in lower part becoming continuous towards apex, 7–64 cm long, 3–6 cm wide; branches spreading to divaricate, sparsely divided, entirely spikelet-bearing or naked near axil. Spikelets shortly pedicellate, usually linear, 5–28 mm long, 1.5–2.5 mm wide; rachilla zig-zagged, thick, wider at internode apex; florets 8–57, finally loosely overlapping. Glumes unequal, ovate or lanceolate, cartilaginous; lower glume 0.9–1.3 mm long, upper glume 1.3–2.8 mm long. Lemma lanceolate to ovate, 1.5–2.3 mm long, acute or acuminate, cartilaginous, 3-nerved. Palea ±as long as lemma; body spathulate to oblong; keels extending length of body, thick, scaberulous. Stamens (2–) 3; anthers 0.3–0.7 mm long. Grain strongly laterally compressed, oblong-ellipsoid, biconvex or plano-convex, about 1.5 times as long as wide, c. 0.6 mm long. Pericarp tardily free on moistening.
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