Perennial, forming spreading tuft; old basal sheaths pubescent. Culms sometimes geniculate, 20–60 cm tall, 1–3-noded. Basal leaves 1/4–1/3 length of culms; leaf sheaths shorter than internodes; leaf blades acicular, convolute, 7–15 cm, outer surface glabrous; ligule of basal leaves 0.5–1.5 mm, rounded, ciliate, of culm leaves up to 2 mm. Panicle loosely contracted, 10–25 cm, base enclosed by uppermost leaf sheath. Spikelets pale gray-green or light brown with silvery tips; glumes narrowly lanceolate, lower often slightly longer, 1.2–2 cm, apex scarious, acuminate into fragile filiform extension; callus pungent, 1.2–1.5 mm; lemma 0.6–0.8 cm, pilose along veins in lower half, minutely asperulous above, scabrid-spinulose below apex, a ring of short stiff hairs at awn articulation; awn 5.5–8 cm, deciduous, hairy throughout, 2-geniculate, column 1–1.6 cm to first bend, 0.7–1 cm to second bend, hairs 0.8–1 mm, bristle 3–6 cm, hairs 1–1.5 mm. Fl. May–Jul.
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