Erect, densely tufted perennial 400-1000 mm high; rhizomatous; base sometimes flattened; basal sheaths glabrous, indistinctly striate, inner hard, shiny. Leaf blade (240-)263-405(-550) x 1.0-2.3(-3.0) mm, linear, rolled (involute) or expanded, green turning reddish brown; glabrous or long hairy, margins scabrid to smooth. Inflorescence erect, broad, open, often interrupted (145-)156-250(-300) mm long, well exserted from upper leaf; much branched; main axis rounded on one side, flattened on other, margin scabrid; spikelets many; pedicels (2.0-)3.5-13.0(-20.0) mm long. Spikelet 30-40(-55) mm long (including awns); glumes almost equal; lower glume 16-25 mm long, apex long acuminate, pale to rusty brown, awned, scabrid, 3-5-nerved, nerves scabridulous; upper glume 15-20(-24) mm long, 3-nerved; lemma 10-13 mm long, narrowly spindle-shaped, involute, ventrally grooved; column absent or of variable length (as lemma matures and fills out, the closely adpressed awns separate and the column becomes less distinct and shorter), scabrid, pale green or brown and purplish near base, or entirely purple, or pale to dark brown when mature; awns spreading or deflexed, spirally contorted basally at maturity, shallowly grooved on inner surface, scabrid, green to yellowish green, becoming brownish yellow at maturity; lateral awns 8-25(-31) mm long, filiform, usually shorter than median awn; median awn (19-)25-41 mm long, narrowly linear, stouter; callus bluntly bifid to emarginate, densely hairy, hairs 2-ranked, short hairs on callus sides and long hairs at base of lemma, tip glabrous; palea ovate, glabrous, apex broadly emarginate or dentate; anthers 4-6 mm long; caryopsis linear, ventrally grooved, glabrous.
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