Perennial, up to 4 ft. high, in compact scanty tufts from a præmorse oblique rhizome, covered with the remains of old cataphylls and sheaths and tomentose at their insertions; innovations intravaginal. Culms erect or slightly geniculate, moderately stout below, simple, 2–3-noded, glabrous except for a ring or beard of silvery hairs at and below the nodes, rough below the inflorescence, otherwise smooth, lowest internodes 2–4 in. long, the following gradually increasing, the uppermost (peduncle) 1–1 1/2 ft. long. Leaf-sheaths tight, firm, smooth, ciliate along the margins, otherwise glabrous, closely striate, shorter than the internodes except the basal which are long-persistent; ligule a very narrow ciliate rim; blade linear from an equally wide base, tapering to a long slender point, flat or when dry more or less involute, 9 in. to over 1 ft. long by 2–3 lin. wide, somewhat rigid, firm, glabrous and smooth on the back, hairy all along on the face or at length glabrescent, margins cartilaginous, scaberulous upwards, midrib deeply channelled downward, prominent and rounded on the back and up to 3/4 lin. wide, primary lateral nerves 2 or 3 on each side, indistinctly differentiated. Inflorescence a more or less dense continuous false spike, 3–6 in. long by 2 1/2–3 1/2 lin. wide (exclusive of the bristles); axis slender, slightly angular, puberulous to tomentellous; branches reduced to sessile involucres of 8–10 bristles, supporting a solitary spikelet or clusters of 2 or 3 perfect spikelets or the lowest branch of a spike frequently barren; bristles rigid, 2–3 1/2 lin. long, scaberulous all along, usually straw-coloured with more or less purplish tips, rarely purplish with lighter tips; pedicels reduced to short stumps with cupular or subdiscoid tips. Spikelets elliptic-oblong, subapiculate in back view, minutely apiculate, semi-elliptic to semi-obovate or semi-ovate in profile, 1 1/4–1 1/2 lin. long by 3/4– 7/8 lin. wide (back and side view), glabrous, pale or tinged with livid purple upwards. Glumes membranous; lower broadly ovate, obtuse or subacute, about half the length of the spikelet, 5–7-nerved; upper very convex and as long or almost as long as the upper floret, subacute, 7- (rarely 5–6-) nerved, slightly prominent upwards. Lower floret ♂: valve similar to the upper glume but always as long as the spikelet, usually somewhat depressed along the middle and 5-nerved; valvule as long or almost as long as the valve, broadly oblong, subobtuse, keels marginate; anthers nearly 1 lin. long. Upper floret hermaphrodite: valve oblong, minutely obliquely apiculate, as long or almost as long as the lower, straw-coloured or whitish, with or without purplish tips, minutely punctate.
