Perennial, forming large clumps. Culms (1.5–)2–3(–4) m tall, ca. 1 cm in diam., lower nodes yellowish villous, glabrous below panicle. Lower leaf sheaths hirsute with tubercle-based hairs, upper sheaths smooth; leaf blades 50–120 × 0.5–1.8 cm, woolly above ligule with long yellowish hairs, otherwise glabrous, margins scabrid, tapering to midrib at base, apex filiform; ligule a narrow rim, back villous with ca. 2 mm hairs. Panicle dense, lobed, 30–50 × 10–15 cm, grayish sometimes tinged pink, axis glabrous, branches much branched; racemes short, crowded, with 3–4 joints; rachis internodes 2–3 mm, silky villous. Spikelets 3–6 mm, purplish; callus hairs as long as spikelet; lower glume lanceolate, membranous, back glabrous or pilose with spreading hairs, keels scabrid, apex attenuate, minutely notched; lower lemma 3/4 as long to subequaling glumes; upper lemma elliptic, apex acute, awned; awn almost straight, 4–8 mm. Anthers 3, 2.1–2.2 mm. Fl. and fr. autumn. 2n = 20, 60.
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