Perennial plants 35–50 cm high; base bulbous, woolly. Culms simple; nodes hairy. Leaves mainly glabrous; sheaths usually more than half as long as culm internodes; blade to 32 cm long, setaceous, scaberulous. Panicles spike-like, compact, 3.5–6 cm long, 0.7–1 cm wide. Glumes slightly unequal to subequal, 6.5–8 mm long, acuminate, 9-nerved, villous with tubercle-based hairs or becoming glabrous. Florets equal to or slightly exceeding longer glume. Callus bearded on the front. Lemma 6–8 mm long, awned, cartilaginous, 5-nerved (central 3 closely placed, separated from each marginal nerve by a broad shallow groove), (sometimes obscurely) bisulcate, villous in lower 2/3–3/4 with tubercle-based hairs, glabrous and scabrous above; awn 2–3 mm long. Palea similar to lemma in length and indumentum, with entire or bifid beak, sometimes sparsely hairy in the lower part of the flaps. Caryopsis 3–4 mm long.
Recorded habitatsinclude coarse-or fine-textured sands and sandy loams, rocky or stony flatsand slopes, and moist sites in valley floors and near small watercourses.
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