Tufted perennial, often short-lived, up to 75 cm high; internodes glabrous. Panicle contracted although the spikelets are on long filiform branches and pedicels. Glumes unequal, narrowly lanceolate, 3-nerved, glabrous or thinly hairy, the lower 7–8 mm long, shortly bifid with the central nerve excurrent, the upper 9–10.5 mm long, narrowed above into a short awn; lemma, including the callus, 2.5–3 mm long, papillose-scabrid; column pilose, especially (and sometimes only) at the junction of the awns, 6.5–10 mm long; central awn 3–4 cm long, plumose throughout, sometimes thinly so below, with or without an excurrent naked tip; lateral awns 0.8–1.2 cm long, glabrous.
Range
N1, 2; C1, 2 tropical and southern Africa to India.
