Tufted perennial with stout rootstock; culms 30–200 cm. high.. Leaf-blades up to 40 cm. long, 2–17 mm. wide, with a filiform tip.. Panicle linear, 5–25 cm. long; rhachis cylindrical with short peduncle-stumps, puberulous to pubescent; involucre enclosing 3–6 spikelets, one of them hermaphrodite the rest ♂, all raised upon pedicels 1–3 mm. long; bristles, or at least the inner, loosely ciliate, subequal, 6–12 mm. long.. Male spikelets lanceolate, laterally compressed, 3.5–7.5 mm. long; lower glume linear, up to 1.5 mm. long; upper glume 1/2–3/4 as long as the spikelet, acuminate; lower lemma almost as long as the spikelet (rarely only 1/2 as long), barren, membranous, acute; upper lemma similar to the lower.. Bisexual spikelet narrowly lanceolate, dorsally compressed, 4.5–7 mm. long; lower glume tiny or suppressed; upper glume and lower lemma ovate, the former 1/4, the latter 1/3–1/2 as long as the spikelet; upper lemma subcoriaceous, acuminate.
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