Caespitose, robust perennial, base pubescent, typically not fibrous; culms 60–140 cm. high. Leaves mostly basal; sheaths with both fine and clavellate hairs; blades lanceolate to narrowly lanceolate, 19–48 cm. long, 7–16 mm. wide, tapering at the base, stiffly ascending, sparsely to densely pilose with fine, tubercle-based hairs and clavellate hairs, acute to a hard or subulate tip. Panicle oblong to broadly ovate, (10–)15–30 cm. long, often densely clavellate hairy, the delicate branches ascending or spreading. Spikelets oblong, 2.5–3.5 mm. long, pilose at the tip, otherwise glabrous, purple tinged; lower glume up to 1/2 the length of the spikelet, 3-nerved, pectinate; upper glume 3/4 to as long as the spikelet, (3–)5-nerved, pectinate; lower lemma as long as the spikelet, 7-nerved, pectinate, sterile, its palea absent; upper lemma pallid, with or without hyaline margins produced into a flap at the apex, its palea similar.
