Perennial, loosely tufted from knotty rootstock. Culms stiffly erect, up to 1 m tall, 2–2.5 mm in diam., scaberulous-puberulous, 2–3-noded. Leaf sheaths glabrous, shorter than internodes; leaf blades stiffly ascending, linear or broadly linear, flat or margins inrolled, 10–25 cm, 5–12 mm wide, abaxial surface smooth, adaxial surface asperulous-puberulous, apex slenderly acuminate; ligule 1–3 mm, obtuse or truncate. Panicle narrow, 15–25 cm; branches 2 per node, suberect, 1–5 cm, densely scabrid. Spikelets yellowish green; glumes elliptic-obovate, 4–5 × 3.5–4 mm, herbaceous, 5–7-veined with transverse veinlets, apex rounded; callus ca. 0.5 mm, knoblike, glabrous; lemma elliptic, 4–5 mm, shortly exserted from glumes, blackish brown at maturity, 5-veined, glabrous, margins overlapping (before caryopsis develops), apex entire; awn persistent, 10–17 mm. Anthers ca. 2.5 mm, glabrous at apex. Fl. and fr. Apr–Jul.