Densely caespitose perennial, the culms arising above a cushion of old leaf sheaths; culms up to 35 cm tall, erect, unbranched; basal leaf sheaths firmly chartaceous, glabrous, terete, strongly ribbed, eventually disintegrating into a cushion of coarse fibres; leaf laminas 2.5–16 cm long, involute-setaceous, glabrous on the surface, smooth on the margins, obtuse at the apex.
Panicle 3–4.5 cm long, narrowly ovate to ovate; the primary branches not in whorls but sometimes in clusters, smooth, eglandular, with a yellow glabrous pulvinus in the axils, the spikelets gathered into clusters at the distal end.
Grain not known.