Perennial plants 30–70 cm high, glaucous; base slightly thickened, pubescent. Culms branched, glabrous; nodes usually bearded. Leaves mainly glabrous and smooth; sheaths shorter than culm internodes; blade to 20 cm long, to 5 mm wide, scaberulous on nerves. Panicles open or contracted, 5–9 cm long, 1–3 cm wide. Glumes subequal, 7–10 mm long, muticous or cuspidulate, indistinctly 11–15-nerved, hispid with tubercle-based hairs. Florets subequal to or exceeding glumes by up to 0.7 mm. Lemma 7.5–10 mm long, acuminate, muticous, cartilaginous, 5–7-nerved (often obscurely in lower part), bisulcate, long-hirsute in lower 2/3–3/4 with hairs not reaching apex; upper part scabrous on surface and margins, or glabrous or shortly pubescent and smooth. Palea subequal to lemma or shorter by c. 1 mm, bicuspidate from excurrent keels, hirsute in lower c. 3/4 between keels, glabrous and smooth or scaberulous above. Caryopsis 3–5 mm long.
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