Plants compact, forming hummocks, rarely rings, 0.3–0.6 m high, 1–2 m wide. Flowering culms 0.3–1.15 m high, often purple near nodes. Leaves: sheath indurated, usually hairy between thick nerves, purple when young; orifice and pseudopetiole with weak, often crimped cilia on margins, sometimes cilia extending onto blade; blade straight, horizontal, 3–20 cm long, 0.6–1 mm wide, with pseudopetiole about 3 mm long. Inflorescence a raceme or few-branched panicle, 5–17 cm long, 1.5–5 cm wide; axis compressed, filiform, often drooping; branches if present less than 4 cm long. Spikelets lanceolate or ovate or oblong, 8–22 mm long, 3–10 mm wide, 4–18-flowered; pedicel to 25 mm long; rachilla internodes c. 1 mm long. Glumes broadly lanceolate-oblong, 4–10 mm long, obtuse to acuminate, sometimes with mucro to 1.5 mm long, cartilaginous to indurated, sometimes rounded on back, 3 (–5)-nerved, glabrous. Callus obtuse. Basal lemma 4.5–7 (–10) mm long, cartilaginous to indurated, not abruptly bitextured, at least partly hirsute; lobes minute to 1/4 as long as lemma; midlobe subulate; lateral lobes sometimes shorter, triangular. Palea ±equal to lemma body, 2-lobed or bifid at apex, not abruptly bitextured; body and keels usually hairy near base; keels with narrow, straight-edged wings usually not exposed. Anthers (2–) 3–4 mm long.
Grows predominantly in skeletal,rocky or stony soils derived from various rock types, on hills, slopes and outcrops;sometimes found on sand plains, in sandy river channels and in clayey soils.
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