perennial, tufted, with short barren shoots from the base of the culms; the latter 4–8 in. long, slender, glabrous, smooth, 1–3-noded; sheaths tight or the upper slightly tumid, glabrous, particularly those of the barren shoots deeply grooved; ligule a line of short hairs; blades broad or narrowly lanceolate from a broad base, finely acuminate, the lower 1/3–1 in. by 1–2 lin., the upper much reduced, rigid, glabrous, smooth; margins cartilaginous, spinulously fimbriate; nerves numerous, very close; panicle erect, oblong to ovate, lax, 1–2 in. by 1/2–1 1/4 in.; branches in whorls or semiwhorls of 3–9, rarely solitary or in pairs, spreading at right angles, capillary, smooth, usually simple, 6–3. spiculate from the middle; lateral pedicels very short; spikelets secund, drooping, 1/2 lin. long, dark purplish or olive-green; glumes very dissimilar, the lower equalling 1/2 the length of the spikelet, ovate, acute, hyaline, nerveless, the upper as long as the valve and like it, but firmer, oblong-ovate, acute, 1-nerved; pale as long as the valve; stamens 3; anthers about 1/8 lin. long, elliptic; grain lenticular, 1/2 lin. long, very flat with subacute edges. null