Culms 3–5 m, 1–2.5 cm in diam.; internodes dark green, commonly 20–22 cm, initially thickly white powdery, sparsely puberulent; wall 3–5 mm thick; nodes elevated, nodal ridge more prominent than sheath scar; intranode ca. 4 mm. Culm sheaths green, with purple or yellow stripes, white powdery, basal ones white or brown pubescent and strigose, others subglabrous or glabrous, margins irregularly ciliate; auricles ascendant, purple, triangular to broadly falcate, connected with base of blade; oral setae flexuose; ligule purple, arcuate, 2–3 mm, erose, densely fringed with stout, purple cilia 2–3 mm; blade erect or deflexed, purple to green-purple, triangular to narrowly triangular, slightly wavy. Leaves 1 or 2 per ultimate branch; auricles absent; oral setae several, erect; ligule with thick cilia; blade 8–14 × 1.2–1.8 cm. Flowering branchlets capitate or subcapitate; scaly bracts 5 or 6, thinly leathery, margins densely ciliate; basal spathes broadly ovate, distal spathes narrowed; auricles and oral setae absent; ligule conspicuous; blade subulate or triangular. Pseudospikelets 1 or 2 per spathe. Spikelets usually with 4 or 5 florets. Glumes 1 or 2, variably sized, usually narrower than lemma, ± membranous, pubescent, apex acuminate with an awnlike point; rachilla disarticulating below each fertile floret; lemma narrowly lanceolate, pubescent except at base, inconspicuously many veined, dorsally keeled, apex acuminate, awnlike. Lemmas 1.2–1.4 cm, basal one sterile and subtending a very small palea and depauperate flower; palea shorter than lemma, pubescent, apex 2-cleft; lodicules oblanceolate, apex ciliolate. Anthers ca. 6 mm. Ovary 3-ribbed. New shoots May, fl. Apr–May.
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