Perennial; culms erect or rarely decumbent at the base and rooting at the lower nodes, 60-100 cm. high, densely pubescent below the inflorescence; lower sheaths much shorter than the internodes, the upper ones crowded, flattened but scarcely keeled, glabrous, broadened at the truncate, more or less auriculate, densely ciliate mouth; ligule obsolete; blades 18-30 cm. long, 6-9.5 cm. wide, petiolate, asym-metrical, rather abruptly acute or acuminate, glabrous; spike 20-30 cm. long, about 1 cm. thick, densely many-flowered; the axis and the pedicels of the spike-lets conspicuously hispid; spikelets appressed, somewhat obscured by the awns; lower bracts very short, obscure, irregularly lobed; lemma about 12 mm. long, tapering into an awn 10 cm. long, the lower part (about 6 cm.) nearly straight, the upper part much finer, minutely but conspicuously contorted; palea 8-9 mm. long, the lobes acute, somewhat spreading at the tip; lodicules unequal, 13-15 mm. long, somewhat exceeding the lemma.
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