perennial, compactly cæspitose, glabrous; culms erect, 1/2–1 1/2 ft. high, rarely taller, more or less compressed below, usually 2-noded, internodes exserted; leaves mostly near the base; sheaths tight, smooth, the lower more or less keeled, ultimately breaking up into persistent fibres; ligules ovate, 1/2–1 1/2 lin. long; blades linear, acute, 2–6 in. by 1–1 1/2 lin., flat, with the tips often complicate and curved, smooth or finely scaberulous above; panicle ovoid or pyramidal when open, 2 1/2–6 in. long, erect or nodding, lax; rhachis smooth, very slender; branches distant, geminate, finely filiform, flexuous or wavy, up to 2 in. long, undivided to the middle or beyond it, smooth or scaberulous above; branchlets contracted; lateral pedicels very short, scaberulous; spikelets crowded on the tips of the branches, ovate-oblong, 2–2 1/2 lin. long, closely 3–5-flowered, pallid, rarely variegated with purple; glumes rather unequal, lower ovate to oblong when expanded, acute, 1–1 1/2 lin. long, 1-nerved; keel scaberulous, upper ovate, acuminate, 1 1/4–2 lin. long, 3-nerved, side-nerves usually very short; valves oblong, subacute to acute, lower 2 lin. long, glabrous or minutely pubescent below along the keel and the outer nerves, not connected by wool; tips hyaline; nerves prominent; pales 1 3/4 lin. long, keels scabrid; anthers 1–1 1/4 lin. long. null
