Tufted perennial 300-900 mm high. Leaf blade 200-400 x to 1.5 mm, setaceous. Inflorescence to 200 mm long, usually open. Spikelet 8-10(-12) mm long (excluding awns), usually loosely flowered; glumes unequal, very narrowly lanceolate, acuminate; lower glume glabrous, scaberulous along the nerve, 1-nerved; upper glume about 3/4 as long as spikelet, 3-nerved; rachilla internode about 2 mm long, with hairs 3-4 mm long; lemma linear-lanceolate, smooth or finely papillate, lobes shorter than 7 mm from above the central awn insertion; lowest lemma longer than 7 mm from the base to where lobes start; anther 0.6-3.3 mm long.
Perennial; up to 0.9 m high; tufted. Leaf blades 200-400 mm long; up to 1.5 mm wide; setaceous. Flowers: panicle usually open; up to 200 mm long; spikelets 8-10(-12) mm long; loosely flowered; upper glume ± 3/4 spikelet length; rachilla internodes ± 2 mm long; exposed between florets; with hairs 3-4 mm long; lemmas smooth or finely papillate; lobes above insertion of awn 3-5 mm long.
Perennial, tufted, up to 0.9 m high. Leaf blades 200-400 mm long, setaceous, up to 1.5 mm wide. Spikelets 8-10(-12) mm long. Panicle up to 200 mm long, usually open; upper glume ± three-quarters the spikelet length; rhachilla internodes ± 2 mm long, with hairs 3-4 mm long; lemma smooth or finely papillate, lobes above insertion of awn shorter than 7 mm.