perennial, cæspitose or annual; culms geniculate-erect, very slender, branched or almost simple, from 2 in. to more than 1 ft. long, compressed below, 1–3-noded, glabrous, smooth, uppermost internode by far the longest; leaves crowded at the base; sheaths tight or slightly tumid, compressed, keeled, glabrous, smooth, the basal persistent, breaking up into fibres; blades subsetaceous with an acute or callous point, 1/2–1 1/2 in. long, plicate, firm, the lower often curved, glabrous, rarely sparingly hairy, smooth, margins rough; spike solitary, 1–6 in. long, very slender, usually curved, often purplish; rhachis minutely ciliate; spikelets 1-flowered, dorsally compressed, in a single row, 1–1 1/2 lin. long, glabrous; glumes lanceolate-oblong, acute to cuspidate-acuminate, the lower slightly longer, asymmetric; valve abruptly and shortly acuminate, sometimes mucronulate, up to 7/8 lin. long, very densely hairy along the nerves; pale ciliate on the nerves; anthers 1/4– 1/3 lin. long; grain dorsally compressed, over 1/2 lin. long. null
