Perennial, compactly cæspitose, with numerous intravaginal innovations, 1/2–1 1/2 ft. high. Culms erect, slender, few- to 4-noded and simple below the inflorescence, terete, glabrous, very rarely with a few small hairs at the nodes. Leaf-sheaths very firm, smooth, glabrous, tight, those of the innovations and base of the culms widened at the base, very tough and long-persistent, straw-coloured, up to 5 in. long; ligules membranous to scarious, oblong, truncate, ciliate, up to 1 1/2 lin. long; blades semiterete, filiform, wiry, flexuous, very fine and often circinate upwards, rounded on the back, channelled on the face, or those of the culms somewhat flatter and shorter, up to more than 9 in. long, 1/2 lin. in diam., glabrous, finely scaberulous on the nerves below, though often smooth to the touch, pale, glaucous, evenly 7–9-nerved, the midrib showing only above as a broad white band. Spatheate panicle narrow, 3–12 in. long, few- to 7-noded, lower internodes 2–3 in. long, upper rapidly decreasing in length, slender, glabrous; lowest primary branch rarely undivided at the base, 3–2-noded and up to 6 in. long, usually forming—like the following—up to 4-rayed simple or mixed tiers; lowest subtending sheaths with foliaceous blades; rays finely filiform, 1–1 1/2 (rarely to over 2) in. long, glabrous; spathes narrowly lanceolate, subherbaceous, often tinged with pale purple, with a short blade or the upper bladeless and produced into a setaceous point, 1 1/2–1 3/4 in. long, glabrous. Spatheoles very narrow, acute or with a setaceous point 1/2–1 in. long, pale or straw-coloured; peduncles finely filiform, widened upwards, 1 1/2–2 lin. long, tips truncate. Racemes 2-nate, more or less divaricate, at length epinastically deflexed, 1/2–1 lin. long, white-villous, pale or tinged with purple, one subsessile, the other with a bare base, 1/2–1 lin. long; bases puberulous to pubescent in the fork, ciliate-bearded upwards, with minutely cupular and denticulate tips, that of the subsessile raceme as well as the adjacent pedicel stout, elliptic to elliptic-oblong in outline and convex on the back, ultimately more or less glabrescent and glossy; fertile joints filiform, slightly widened towards the oblique subcupular auricled tips, 1 1/4–1 1/2 lin. long, densely hairy to villous from the back and the angles (hairs increasing upwards to 2 lin. long); adjacent pedicels similar to the joints but more slender. Homogamous pair of spikelets 1 at the base of the sessile or of both racemes; the sessile spikelet of the lowest but one of the sessile raceme intermediate and imperfectly awned. Fertile spikelets linear-lanceolate, more or less acuminate, acute, including the callus 2 1/2–3 or even 3 1/2 lin. long, glabrous, pale green below, reddish upwards; callus short, obtuse, shortly bearded. Glumes equal, chartaceous; lower nerveless and shallowly concave between the acute scaberulous keels, minutely 2-denticulate; upper lanceolate-oblong in profile, acute, slightly curved on the back, 1-nerved, margins broadly hyaline upwards, ciliate. Lower floret reduced to a linear-oblong nerveless hyaline ciliolate valve, slightly shorter than the glumes. Upper floret hermaphrodite: valve very narrow, shortly 2-fid, cuneate-linear and chartaceous below the insertion of the awn, under 1 1/2 lin. long, lobes broadly lanceolate, ciliate; awn up to 5 lin. long, very fine, more or less kneed at and slightly twisted below the middle; column smooth. Anthers 1 lin. long. Pedicelled spikelets ♂, linear-oblong, 2–3 lin. long, glabrous, more reddish than the sessile; glumes subchartaceous with 5–9 evenly distant intracarinal nerves, the upper thinner, 3-nerved; valve of lower floret linear-oblong, sub-2-nerved, ciliolate, 2 lin. long; upper floret reduced to a ♂ flower, or its valve present as a microscopic scale.
