Plant densely tufted; shoots intravaginal or extravaginal. Culms 15–60 cm tall, nodes 1–2. Leaf sheaths smooth, glabrous, margins membranous; auricles present as erect swellings or absent; leaf blades conduplicate, 10–20 cm × ca. 0.5 mm, both surfaces scabrid. Panicle loose, open at flowering, 6–10 cm; branches 2–5 cm, inserted singly. Spikelets 8.5–11 mm, greenish or purplish brown; florets 3–6; glumes smooth or scabrid, margins thinly membranous or ciliolate, apex acute; lower glume lanceolate, 2–2.5 mm; upper glume lanceolate-ovate, 3–4.5 mm; rachilla internodes 1.8–2.2 mm, pubescent; lemmas 5.1–6.5 mm, scabrid on upper back, rarely pubescent laterally at base; awns 2–3.5 mm; palea keels scabrid, pubescent between keels. Anthers 1.5–2.5 mm. Ovary apex densely hairy. Fl. and fr. Jul.