culms erect, slender, simple, 1 1/2–3 ft. long, terete, glabrous, few-noded; leaves mainly crowded near the base; sheaths terete, tight, generally exceeding the internodes, bearded at the nodes, otherwise glabrous or scantily and fugaciously hairy; ligules firm, up to 2 lin. long; blades very narrow, linear, tapering to a long setaceous point, 4–10 in. by 3/4–2 lin., usually convolute, glabrous or hirsute at the base, rarely hairy all over; racemes solitary, 3–7 in. long, strict or subflexuous, rhachis subterete, glabrous; subsessile (♂) spikelets oblong, 3–4 lin. long, hairy; lower glume obtuse or 2-toothed, keels crested, ciliolate, intracarinal nerves about 7, margins very narrowly inflexed; upper glume linear-oblong, subacute, subglabrous, 3-nerved, margins softly ciliate; anthers 1 1/2–2 lin. long; pedicelled (hermaphrodite) spikelets, 3 1/2–4 1/2 lin. long, pedicel very slender, about 1 1/2 lin. long, scantily long-hairy; lower glume oblong-linear, minutely truncate, ciliate near the membranous reddish tips, otherwise more or less hairy, nerves 8–11, transversely anastomosing, callus 1 lin. long; upper glume lanceolate-linear, obtuse, strongly 3-nerved, scantily hairy above; awn of upper valve 1 1/2–2 1/2 in. long, softly hairy with hairs decreasing upwards, or the bristle scabrid. null
