perennial, tufted; innovation shoots intravaginal; culms erect, slender, firm, 1 to over 2 ft. long, glabrous, terete, with about 2 exserted nodes; leaves mostly crowded at the base; sheaths tight, striate, ciliate, and usually villous at the junction with the blade, otherwise glabrous or sparingly and softly hairy, the lower very firm, fugaciously tomentose at the base, persistent; ligule a minutely ciliate rim; blades narrowly linear, gradually passing into and often distinctly narrowed towards the sheath, tapering to a fine point, 5–14 in. by 1–2 lin., erect, usually convolute, sometimes flat, rigid, glabrous except the more or less hairy or villous base, scabrid, closely and prominently nerved; panicle erect, more or less contracted, decompound, delicately branched, oblong, 4–8 in. long; axis slender, scaberulous; branches solitary, 2- or 3-nate or irregularly approximate, the longest 2–3 1/2 in. long, and undivided for 1/2–1 1/2 in., then laxly branched, filiform, scabrid, branchlets subcapillary or capillary; pedicels solitary or 2-nate, unequal, the longer often up to 3–5 lin. long, capillary, scabrid, tips subcupular; spikelets somewhat obliquely ovoid and obliquely acuminate, slightly over 1 lin. long, greenish or more or less purplish, gaping, prominently nerved; glumes similar, almost boat-shaped, ovate to oblong-ovate, acute or subacuminate; lower about 1/2– 3/4 the length of the spikelet, often mucronulate, 5–7-nerved; upper equalling the spikelet, 7-nerved; lower floret ♂; valve very similar to the upper glume, 5-nerved; pale equal to the valve, oblong, subacute, flaps very broad at the base; anthers 1/2– 1/3 lin. long; hermaphrodite floret oblong, obtuse, 3/4 lin. long, smooth, shining, white or yellowish, tips sometimes purplish; valve subcoriaceous, very faintly 5–7-nerved. null
