Short-lived perennial, the basal sheaths glabrous; culms 40–100 cm. high, geniculately ascending. Leaf-blades flat, 6–25 cm. long, 2–7 mm. wide. Panicle linear, 12–28 cm. long, the flexuous branches mostly 4–8 cm. long, loosely spiculate and appressed to the main axis; pedicels slender, 2–4 mm. long. Spikelets 5–16-flowered, oblong, 3.5–9 mm. long, 1.5–2 mm. wide, dark greyish green sometimes tinged with purple, the florets merely contiguous, breaking up from the base, the rhachilla persistent; glumes ovate, boat-shaped, subequal, 1.3–1.6 mm. long, scabrid on the keel; lemmas broadly ovate, 1.7–2.3 mm. long, cartilaginous, the nerves indistinct, acute; palea scaberulous on the keels, persistent; anthers 2, 0.6 mm. long. Caryopsis oblong, 0.7 mm. long, triangular in section. Fig. 61/12, p. 193.
