Perennial, up to 2 1/2 ft. high, glabrous throughout. Culms suberect or geniculately ascending from a very slender rooting base, sparingly branched from some of the lower nodes, up to over 10-noded, lower internodes short (1/2–1 1/2 in.), the lowest very slender and almost wiry, the following stouter, weaker and more or less compressed, or, if erect, terete like the upper, these 4–8 in. long or the uppermost (peduncle) up to 1 1/2 ft. long. Lowest leaf-sheaths short, thin, soon decaying, the following herbaceous, somewhat loose and slipping off the culm, shorter to much shorter than the adjoining internodes, rarely over 3 in. long, with short auricles or shoulders at the mouth; ligules membranous, truncate, up to 1/2 lin. long; blades more or less spreading, linear from an almost equally wide base, tapering to a fine point, 3–4 in. by 2 lin., flat, green, glabrous and smooth except along the minutely scaberulous margins, midrib very slender, whitish below, lateral nerves obscure. False spikes 1 1/2–4 in. by 3 lin., rather dense, continuous or irregularly constricted or interrupted; common axis slender, up to 1/4 lin. in diam.; pedicels short, up to 3/4 lin. long, smooth, tips more or less discoid. Spikelets ovate-lanceolate, acute, more or less oblique after flowering, slightly gaping with subparallel tips, 2 1/4 lin. long, olive-green, smooth. Glumes membranous, prominently nerved; lower broad-ovate, acute, 7-nerved; upper oblong, gently curved on the back, subacuminate, 9-nerved. Lower floret barren: valve very similar to the upper glume and of the same length, but with a straight back, 9-nerved; valvule much shorter, linear, with narrow flaps. Upper floret hermaphrodite, oblong, acute, over 1 lin. by 1/3 lin., whitish, polished.
