Perennial, up to 4 ft. high. Culms erect, rather slender, simple, 3-noded, softly and very finely hirsute, particularly the lower internodes. Leaf-sheaths tight, softly and loosely or densely hirsute, up to 3 in. long, shorter than the internodes; ligules thinly membranous, up to 1/2 lin. long, ciliolate; blades linear from an equally wide base, long-tapering to a slender point, up to 14 in. by 2 lin., flat or involute, firm, softly hirsute on both sides, midrib and primary lateral nerves about 4 on each side, slender, prominent. Panicle oblong, contracted, somewhat dense, up to 8 in. long, stiffly erect, divided up to the fourth (rarely fifth) degree, all the axes including the pedicels with long loose white hairs; primary axis slender, terete, striate or sulcate, rough; primary branches solitary or approximate in pairs or threes, branched from near the base and forming false whorls of very unequal divisions (the longest up to 4 in. long), with somewhat distant small clusters of spikelets (penultimate divisions) below the loose terminal raceme; lateral pedicels from very short to 2 lin. long, their hairs up to over 1 lin. long. Spikelets ovate, acuminate in outline, gaping, 1 lin. long, pale or tinged with purple, glabrous. Glumes similar, membranous, faintly nerved, long-acuminate, the acumen passing into a fine scaberulous mucro or awnlet up to 1/2 lin. long; lower obliquely lanceolate or ovate-lanceolate, without the mucro or awn slightly shorter than the lower floret, prominently 3-nerved; upper broader, 5-nerved, as long as the lower floret, the mucro or awnlet shorter. Lower floret ♂: valve ovate, subacute, finely 5-nerved; valvule slightly shorter, oblong, acute, flaps gradually widened downwards; anthers 1/2 lin. long. Upper floret hermaphrodite, elliptic-oblong in outline, obtuse, 3/4 lin. long, whitish, glossy and smooth; valve and valvule crustaceous.