perennial (always?); culms erect, slender, 2–10 ft. long, glabrous, more or less branched; branches erect, intravaginal, leafy; sheaths terete, subcarinate above, tight or ultimately slipping from the culm, glabrous, or the lower sparingly hairy; ligules membranous, truncate, about 1 lin. long; blades linear, tapering to an acute, often very fine point, 1–2 ft. by 3/4–3 lin., flat or subconvolute, glabrous, rarely sparingly hairy, smooth or scaberulous, margins rough; panicle narrow, 1/2–1 1/4 ft. long, contracted; branches erect, strict, filiform, from lanceolate to linear long and setaceously acuminate sheaths; spathes very narrow; linear, 2 in. long, glabrous or finely hairy along the margins; common peduncles capillary, enclosed in the spathe except the flexuous or pendulous or finally strict upper part, which is pubescent and very long but very scantily bearded; racemes subcontiguous, slender, unequally peduncled (the longer peduncle 2–5 lin. long, glabrous or hairy), 5–6 lin. long; joints filiform, up to 3/4 lin. long, glabrous or subglabrous, pedicels somewhat longer, the upper ciliate; sessile spikelets 2 in the lower, 3 in the upper raceme, in both only the upper one hermaphrodite, the others ♂ like the pedicelled spikelets; hermaphrodite spikelets oblong-linear, 2–2 1/2 lin. long, pale, tips reddish, callus fine, acute, up to 1 lin. long, densely bearded; lower glume subchartaceous, truncate, glabrous or more or less hairy, intracarinal nerves about 5, prominent all along or only upwards, not pitted; upper membranous, truncate, 3-nerved, glabrous; lower valve linear-oblong, 1 1/2 lin. long, nerveless or almost so, reversely ciliate; upper very finely cuneate linear, obscurely 2-toothed, passing into a stout awn, 1 1/2–2 1/2 in. long, rufous-hispidulous below; pale 0; anthers 1 1/2 lin. long; ♂ spikelets lanceolate to linear, subacuminate, 2 1/2–3 1/2 lin. long, dull purplish, glabrous; lower glume 9–11-nerved, muticous in the lower, aristulate in the upper pairs; upper glume acute, 3-nerved, reversely ciliate; valves oblong, obtuse, lower 1-nerved; upper nerveless, up to 1 1/2 lin. long. null
