perennial, very densely cæspitose with numerous very short densely leafy innovation shoots; culms shortly ascending, very slender, from 2–9 in. long, glabrous, smooth, densely leafy at the very base, 2-noded, internodes exserted, often purplish; sheaths tight, strongly striate, rather firm, glabrous except for the ciliate upper margins and a few coarse hairs at the mouth; ligule a fringe of short hairs; blades setaceous-subulate, canaliculate with a callous point, 1/2–2 in. long, rigid, the basal more or less curved, glaucous, scaberulous towards the tip, with spreading long white papilliform hairs; panicle small, contracted, ovoid to subglobose, 1/3– 3/4 in. long; rhachis and all the divisions scaberulous, purplish; branches fascicled, unequal, filiform, very scantily divided from the base or 1-spiculate; pedicels 1/2–2 lin. long; spikelets 2 1/2–4 lin. long, crowded; florets about 5, uppermost rudimentary; rhachilla glabrous, joints short; glumes lanceolate, acute, herbaceous and usually purple on the back with thin whitish margins, glabrous, very minutely scaberulous in the upper part, closely 5-nerved; valves oblong, body 3/4–1 lin. long, with a transverse fringe of tufts of hairs below the insertion of the awn and several submarginal tufts below it, obscurely 9-nerved; lobes oblong, obtuse, 1 lin. long, each with 3 distinct parallel nerves below the middle, hyaline and ciliolate above; awn about 2 1/2 lin. long, slightly twisted below the middle; callus short, shortly hairy; panicles oblong or panduriform, 1 1/2 lin. long, hairy below the middle, keels scabrid; lodicules fleshy, scantily ciliate; anthers 7/8 lin. long; grain obovoid, 1/2 lin. long. null
