perennial; rhizome slender; culms suberect or ascending, very slender, 1–2 ft. long, more or less branched, 5- to many-noded, glabrous, internodes mostly exserted; leaves glabrous or hairy; sheaths thin, striate; ligule an obscure, minutely ciliate rim; blades linear to linear-lanceolate from a suddenly contracted, subauriculate base, tapering to an acute point, 2 in. by 1 1/2–3 lin., flat, thin, margins scabrid; panicle very lax and often very scanty, erect, 5–8 in. long; axis filiform, smooth; branches 3–5, usually solitary, remote, at length spreading, the longer 3–6 in. long, simple, 4–1-spiculate, or remotely and sparingly divided, with long 2–3-spiculate branchlets, finely filiform to capillary, flexuous, smooth; lateral pedicels 1/2–1 in. long, tips cupular; spikelets oblong, acute to subacuminate, 1 1/2–2 lin. long, greenish, glabrous or pubescent, prominently nerved; glumes thinly herbaceous, equal, 1 1/2–2 lin. long, the lower narrow, oblong, acute or subacute, 7–5-nerved; upper ovate-oblong, acute, very concave 7- to sub-9-nerved; lower floret barren; valve similar to the upper glume, but slightly shorter and 5-nerved or 7-nerved near the tip, subhyaline along the middle; pale 1/2 the length of the valve or more; hermaphrodite floret oblong, acute or subacuminate, equalling the lower or a very little shorter, yellowish; valve coriaceous, smooth, 5-nerved; anthers 3/4 lin. long. null
