Plants caespitose or cushion-forming (base compact with sharply diverging straight, stiff leaves); innovation buds intravaginal. Culms 13–25 cm high. Leaves glabrous: sheath mouth bristly; blade abscising, expanded or rolled. Inflorescences linear, 2.5–8 cm long; branches scaberulous. Spikelets 8.2–12 mm long, with 4–7 florets. Glumes equalling florets; lower glume 8.2–12 mm long. Lemma: body 2–2.9 mm long, dull, with villous tufts; lobes as long as body, partially fused to awn, with setae 1.6–3 mm long; awn 6.2–8.3 mm long; awn column with 1 or 2 twists; indumentum in both rows of only marginal tufts, with lower row not reaching upper row. Palea 3.2–4.8 mm long, narrow, 3–5 times as long as wide. Caryopsis 1.8–1.9 mm long.
Grows in damp alpine grassland, restricted to the subalpine belt in Tas., in seepages ordamp grassland; dominant species of sod tussock grassland, tall alpine herbfieldsand fens.
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