Plants robust, rhizomatous; tussocks 60–135 cm high; flowering culms 180–300 cm high. Leaves: sheaths much wider than base of blade, often woolly in lower part (sometimes with dense indumentum extending to blade) or glabrous, often ciliate on margins; basal sheaths reddish brown; ligule 0.8–1 mm long; blade 60–90 cm long, usually mostly glabrous. Panicles 44–54 cm long; primary branches 7–15 cm long; lower branches rarely sparsely subdivided. Pedicel 5–10 mm long. Glumes muticous or aristulate, smooth or scaberulous, usually glabrous; lower glume 8–12 mm long; upper glume 10–13 mm long. Florets 3–6. Basal lemma 10–12 mm long, hirsute in the lower three-quarters; callus 1.5–2.5 mm long; awn 0.5–3 mm long. Palea ±9.5 mm long, glabrous. First empty lemma with body 5–6 mm long; median awn 6–7 mm long; lateral awns 3–4 mm long. Anthers about 4.8 mm long, reddish.
Grows in rugged, sandstone habitats such as steep rocky slopesand massive outcrops, and sometimes on deep white sand on the escarpment.
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