Plants robust, forming hummocks 0.6–2 m high, 0.4–1 m wide. Culms enlarged to 1–2 cm wide near base by persistent overlapping leaf sheaths, pilose or hirsute or woolly on lower internodes, glabrous or scabrous on upper internodes. Flowering culms 1.5–2.5 m high. Leaves: sheath densely woolly or hirsute, scaberulous below hairs; blade flexuose or curved with age, folded, to 60 cm long, 1.3–2 mm wide, with prominent pseudopetiole, often woolly, closely nerved on lower surface. Panicles dense or loose, 15–55 cm long, 3–11 cm wide; axis strongly ribbed and grooved; primary branches to 17 cm long, sometimes further divided; secondary branches to 4 cm long. Spikelets cuneate, 13–20 mm long excluding awns; pedicel 6–23 mm long; florets 5–9, loose; rachilla internodes 2–3 mm long. Glumes ±equal, 10–18.5 mm long, lanceolate, entire and aristulate or (especially lower) 2-or 3-toothed and muticous, membranous or scarious with hyaline margins, 3 (–5)-nerved, glabrous or (especially upper glume) ciliate on margins, often purple. Callus acute, c. 1 mm long, densely bearded. Basal lemma: body (including callus) 6–8 mm long, cartilaginous with narrow and hyaline margins, 3-nerved, with rows of long hairs along margins and nerves; lobes similar, c. 0.3 mm wide at base, attenuated into long awns; midlobe (including awn) 12–23 mm long; lateral lobes (with awns) 10–17 mm long. Palea c. 7.5 mm long; body entire or bifid, usually acuminate, membranous to hyaline, not abruptly bitextured; keels retrorsely scabrous in upper half, pilose or hirsute near base; flaps thick and smooth in lower part, membranous to hyaline and scaberulous above, hyaline on margins, sometimes hairy near middle. Anthers 4–5 mm long.
Grows in red, yellow or brown often deep sandsand sandy loams on plains and dunes, with heath and shrublands; also recordedaround a salt lake.
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