Stiff, wiry, straw-coloured tussock, to 1.8 m, with acicular-tipped leaves overtopping culms; rhizome slender, from base of tufts; branching intravaginal; leaf-blades persistent. Leaf-sheath light green to straw-coloured to grey-brown, ± shining, coriaceous, distinctly ribbed, smooth or short-scabrid between ribs. Ligule 0.3-1 mm, a truncate ciliate rim, abaxially with a dense mat of minute hairs. Leaf-blade 10-65 cm, inrolled c. 1 mm diam., coriaceous, abaxially glabrous, adaxially with stiff short hairs; tip straight-sided, pungent. Culm 5-50 cm, erect, internodes usually very slightly scabrid just below panicle. Panicle (4.5)-6-15 cm, contracted, with few, short, erect, scabrid branches. Spikelets (7)-11-14 mm, 4-6-(7)-flowered, light green, glumes and lemmas brown-tipped. Glumes unequal, 3-nerved, narrow-lanceolate, subobtuse, ± scabrid above; lower (4)-5.5-7 mm, upper (5)-6-7.5 mm. Lemma (5.5)-6-7.5 mm, 5-nerved, elliptic-oblong, obtuse, short-scabrid, with hairs on lower ⅓ of mid-nerve and outer lateral nerves. Palea 5.5-6.5 mm, keels ciliate-scabrid, interkeel with minute hairs and prickle-teeth, tip bifid. Callus with narrow tuft of long crinkled hairs. Rachilla 1-1.5 mm, stiff-ciliate; prolongation twice as long. Lodicules 0.8-1.5 mm, occasionally hair-tipped. Anthers (2.5)-3-4 mm. Caryopsis c. 3 × 1 mm. 2n=c. 266.
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