Loosely tufted, slender, weak perennial to 1 000 mm high. Leaf blade to 250 x to 2 mm, filiform. Inflorescence to 200 mm long, contracted, almost spike-like. Spikelet 8-11 mm long (excluding awns), usually closely flowered; glumes unequal, narrowly lanceolate, acute; lower glume 1-nerved, glabrous, minutely scaberulous along the nerve; upper glume to 2/3 as long as spikelet, 3-nerved; rachilla internode 1.5-2.0 mm long, with hairs to 2 mm long; lemma lanceolate, scabrid below the central awn insertion; anther 0.6-1.6 mm long.
Slender, weak perennial, loosely tufted, up to 1 m high. Leaf blades up to 250 mm long, filiform, up to 2 mm wide. Spikelets 8-11 mm long. Panicle lax, almost spike-like, up to 200 mm long; glumes unequal, upper up to two-thirds the spikelet length; rhachilla inter-nodes 1.5-2.0 mm long, with hairs to 2 mm long; lemma scabrid below insertion of awn.
Perennial to 1 m. Leaves linear. Spikelets 8-11 mm long, in a narrow panicle to 20 cm long, upper glume half to two-thirds as long as spikelet, lemmas scabrid.