Loosely tufted perennial; culms 15–90 cm. high, erect or geniculate. Leaf-blades flat, 3–15 cm. long, 2–5 mm. wide. Panicle ovate, 4–22 cm. long, spreading or somewhat contracted, much branched, the spikelets borne on long slender pedicels. Spikelets 10–26-flowered, narrowly ovate, ovate or ovate-oblong, 4–9 mm. long, 3–5 mm. wide, greyish green to dark green, the rhachilla ± covered by the base of the closely imbricate lemmas, breaking up from the base, the rhachilla persistent; glumes subequal, narrowly ovate, 2–3 mm. long, acute; lemmas broadly ovate-elliptic, 2–2.7 mm. long, the surface ± granular, rounded and somewhat gibbous on the back, the tip abruptly cuspidate to an acute apex or sometimes obtusely triangular; palea falling soon after the lemma, the keels ciliolate with hairs 0.1–0.2 mm. long (these not always well developed in the lower florets); anthers 3, 0.–5–0.7 mm. long. Caryopsis ellipsoid, 0.8–1.2 mm. long. Fig. 60/10, p. 190.
