Plants forming hummocks 0.45–1.2 m high, 0.6–1 m wide, stoloniferous or not. Flowering culms 1.2–2 m high. Leaves: sheath hirsute or glabrescent; orifice ciliate; blade to 40 cm long (rarely much shorter), uniformly grooved abaxially, with thickened scaberulous pseudopetiole. Panicles continuous, usually 20–35 cm long, c. 1 cm wide; branches to 5.5 cm long, alternate, closely appressed to axis. Spikelets overlapping, solitary or sometimes paired, shortly pedicellate, ovate, often plump, 7–9 mm long, c. 4 mm wide, closely 7–10-flowered, straw-coloured. Glumes ovate, 4–4.5 mm long, 2-lobed, mucronulate in sinus (lower glume with unequal lobes), keeled upwards, glabrous. Callus hairy. Basal lemma lanceolate-ovate, 4–5 mm long, lobed for ±one-third of length, firmly coriaceous with tufts of silky hairs near base; midlobe narrower than but scarcely longer than laterals; lateral lobes triangular. Palea almost as long as lemma, scarious; body glabrous; keels broadly winged, with wings not or only scarcely exposed. Anthers not seen.
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