Plants robust, forming hummocks 0.6–0.8 m high. Culms ±smooth or minutely scaberulous; flowering culms 1.4–2.5 m high. Leaves: sheath indurated, glabrous or basal ones hirsute; orifice shortly ciliate; blade folded, 24–50 cm long, 1–1.8 mm wide, with prominent thick abaxial nerves, scabrous. Panicles dense, 24–29 cm long, 4–7 cm wide; axis ribbed, with prominent pulvini; primary branches 10–16 cm long, further divided; secondary branches to 15 mm long. Spikelets cuneate, 13–15 mm long (including awns); pedicel 2–7 mm long; rachilla internodes c. 2 mm long; florets 4. Glumes ±equal, lanceolate, 8–14 mm long, entire or notched, sometimes mucronulate, scarious, 3–5-nerved, glabrous. Callus blunt to acute, c. 0.7 mm long, bearded. Basal lemma 5–6 mm long (body), cartilaginous with hyaline margins, 3–5-nerved, with rows of long white spreading hairs; midlobe (including awn) 2.5–6 mm long; lateral lobes (with awns) 0.8–2.5 mm long. Palea ±as long as lemma body, entire or 2-lobed, cartilaginous or sometimes thinner near apex, hairy in lower part between keels; keels thick and smooth near base, with horizontal and retrorse hairs near top; flaps hyaline. Anthers 3–4 mm long.
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