Perennial; culms 0.8-2 m. high, robust, thick and succulent at the base, com-pressed, the nodes glabrous to densely appressed-hirsute; sheaths much longer than the internodes, keeled, broad and loose, glabrous or hirsute on the collar, the mar-gins sometimes ciliate toward the summit, the lower ones equitant, purplish, spongy, reticulate in drying; ligule 1.5-3 mm. long; blades 50-100 cm. long, 1-2 cm. wide, firm, folded at the base, long-acuminate, glabrous with a few hairs just above the ligule, the margins sharply serrate; panicles 12-40 cm. long, rather narrow, tapering, dense, composed of 50-100 crowded, finally spreading racemes, the lower ones 5-9 cm. long with conspicuous tufts of hairs in the axils; rachis 1.2-1.5 mm. wide, sharply serrate, the margins papillose-ciliate with rather stiff hairs 2-5 mm. long; spikelets 1.9-2.2 mm. long, paired, on slender scabrous pedicels, suborbicular or obovate, sometimes tinged with purple; glume and sterile lemma equal, thin, glabrous; fruit covered or slightly exposed, 1.8 mm. long, pale, minutely striate.
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