Plants forming coarse hummocks c. 1 m high, 1–1.3 m wide, stoloniferous. Flowering culms 1–1.3 m high. Leaves: sheath glabrous or sparsely woolly, purple or maturing to brown; orifice of upper leaves bearded with long woolly hairs; blade straight, folded, 4–24 cm long, 1–1.7 mm wide, pseudopetiolate, closely nerved on lower surface, bright green when fresh. Inflorescence a panicle, 11–18 cm long, 2.5–4.5 cm wide; primary branches to 7.5 cm long and further divided. Spikelets single or in pairs, oblong or ovate, plump, 8–12 mm long, 4–6 mm wide, with 4–8 closely overlapping florets; pedicels (of spikelet pairs) unequal, minute to longer than spikelet. Glumes ±equal, ovate-oblong, 6–7 mm long, entire, mucronate, stiff, scarious, glabrous or with fine hairs on margins and back. Callus minute, blunt, shortly bearded. Basal lemma ovate, 6–7 mm long, minutely 2-lobed, mucronate from sinus with mucro distinctly longer than lobes, firmly scarious or indurated, 9-nerved, hirsute near base of midnerve and submargins. Palea elliptic, ±equal to lemma, bifid, with winged keels wider towards tip.
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