Perennial, leaf sheaths and internodes sometimes flushed purple. Culms rambling, hard, 60–100 cm tall, often a glandular ring below some nodes. Leaf sheaths shorter than internodes, papillose-hispid with sharp patent hairs toward mouth, outer margin pectinate-ciliate; leaf blades linear-lanceolate, 12–20 × 1–1.2 cm, scabrid, glabrous or thinly hispid, base narrowly rounded, apex acuminate; ligule 3–5 mm. Panicle open, elliptic to broadly ovate in outline, 10–20 cm, much branched, glandular but sometimes very sparsely so; primary branches inserted singly, slender, loosely spreading, branchlets and pedicels smooth; pedicels shorter or longer than spikelets. Spikelets plumply elliptic, 1.5–1.7(–2.2) mm, pale or purple tinged; flo-rets similar; glumes equal to spikelet, 5–7-veined, glabrous or sparsely setose, with broad incurving margins, subacute, lower glume elliptic, upper glume broader; lemmas smooth, glabrous or puberulous above the middle, minutely ciliolate along upper margins.