Perennial with a creeping branched rhizome emitting serially arranged culms in close or loose succession from extravaginal innovations, covered by strigillose-tomentose cataphylls. Culms erect, rather slender, up to over 4 ft. high, glabrous, 4–6-noded, simple, rarely with a branch from near the base. Leaf-blades rather tight, terete, striate, the upper much shorter than the internodes, glabrous, smooth, moderately firm, the basal breaking down with the dying culms, not forming persistent coats; ligules scarious, rounded, usually very short, rarely up to 1 lin. long, glabrous; blades linear, tapering to a fine point, about 6 in. by 1 1/2 to almost 2 lin., flat with straight or sometimes crisp subscaberulous margins, flexuous, finely pubescent or quite glabrous and smooth, nerves numerous, very fine and close, the primary (3 or 4 on each side) hardly standing out from the others, midrib very slender. Racemes 3–6, sessile or subsessile, digitate or subdigitate on a slender angular common rhachis, up to 3/4 in. long, suberect or spreading, 5–6 in. long, slender, straight or flexuous, rather loose, brownish- or purplish-green; rhachis very slender, 1/5– 1/4 lin. wide, trigonous, angles marginate, scaberulous; pedicels 2-nate, finely filiform, more or less angular, scaberulous, unequal, the longer to over 1 lin. long, flexuous. Spikelets loosely appressed, the superposed distant by their own length, never imbricate, lanceolate-oblong, more or less acute, up to 1 1/2 lin. long, apparently glabrous or obscurely silky on the sides. Lower glume a minute membranous ovate scale, up to 1/10 lin. long; upper lanceolate, acute, about 1 lin. long, very faintly 3-nerved with 4 lines of very fine more or less appressed silky hairs. Lower floret: valve lanceolate-oblong, more or less acute, 7-nerved, middle and inner paired side-nerves prominent but fine, the outermost often faint, with lines of short appressed hairs in the narrow spaces between the inner 2 side-nerves (of each half) and of long ones (up to 3/8 lin.) towards the margins, the hairs very fine, wavy, obtuse; palea and lodicules very minute, 1/10 lin. long. Upper floret thinly chartaceous, oblong, acute, pale brown, 1 1/4 lin. by 2/5 lin. Anthers 1/2 lin. long.
