Plants forming hummocks 0.3–0.45 m high, mostly 1.5–1.8 (–2.5) m wide, resinous (especially on leaf sheaths and orifices), aromatic. Flowering culms 0.6–1.7 m high. Leaves: sheath ciliate on outer margin; orifice bearded with stiff, silvery hairs to 7 mm long; blade strongly curled or flexuose, usually flat when young, to 45 cm long, with scabrid-prickly margins, usually glaucous when young, becoming shiny-green. Panicles contracted, 30–58 cm long, 4–5 cm wide; axis ribbed, purplish when young; branches to 12 cm long. Spikelets 4–8 (–10) mm long excluding awns, shortly pedicellate; florets 4–6, loosely overlapping; rachilla internodes c. 1.5 mm long, slender, glabrous. Glumes lanceolate, ±half length of spikelet (lower glume slightly longer than upper), entire or 2-lobed, mucronate or aristulate from lobes or sinus, 1–3-nerved, scaberulous or smooth, usually ciliate on margins and lobes. Callus minute, 0.1–0.2 mm long, pubescent. Basal lemma 1.6–2.3 (–5) mm long (body and callus), membranous to cartilaginous, 3-nerved, shortly pubescent; lobes very unequal; midlobe awned, 4.5–10 mm long; lateral lobes 1.2–1.5 mm long, usually awnless. Other lemmas 2.5–7 mm long, 3-awned, with awns flat. Palea 2.4–3 mm long, minutely 2-lobed, thinly membranous, sparsely pubescent between keels; keels not winged; flaps with hyaline margins. Anthers 1–2 mm long.
Commonly found in sandy shallow orskeletal soils on sandstone ranges, plateaux and scree slopes, often infissures, pockets and among boulders. Also occurs on hill slopes of quartzite, shalesand laterite, and in seasonally wet sites.
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