perennial; culms erect, straight, from an oblique rhizome, up to 1 ft. long, sheathed all along or the uppermost internode exserted, few-noded; leaves crowded at the base; basal sheaths numerous, woolly-tomentose at the base, otherwise like the upper glabrous and smooth, distichously imbricate; ligule a dense fringe of very short hairs; blades linear, long tapering to a fine point, 4–7 in. by 1–2 lin., rather rigid, glabrous or adpressedly hairy, striate; panicle narrow, contracted, oblong-cuneate, 2 1/2–6 in. long; axis subflexuous, filiform, smooth; branches solitary, sometimes irregularly approximate, lower erect, upper more or less spreading, longest up to 2 in. long, filiform, flexuous, smooth, lower repeatedly divided from near the base; pedicels 1/3– 3/4 lin. long; spikelets ovate, much compressed, 2–2 1/2 lin. by 1–1 1/2 lin., closely 6–8-flowered, olive-green; rhachilla persistent; glumes unequal, ovate-lanceolate, acute or subacute, 1-nerved, upper longer, 1 lin. long, keels scabrid; valves oblong-lanceolate, subacute, 1 1/4–1 1/2 lin. long, rather firmly membranous, side-nerves pallid and inconspicuous, keel stout and scaberulous towards the tip; pales 1 lin. long, keels scabrid; anthers 1/2– 2/3 lin long. null
