perennial, compactly tufted; culms erect, rather slender, 3/4–2 ft. long, glabrous, smooth, usually 2, rarely 1-noded; lower sheaths very firm, persistent, 1/2–1 1/2 in. long, glabrous except the usually long-ciliate margins, sometimes hairy all over, smooth, finely striate, upper tight, the uppermost up to 3/4 ft. long; ligule a very minutely ciliolate rim; blades linear, usually very narrow, tapering to an acute point, 3–10 in. by 1/2–2 lin., involute, often setaceous, particularly those of the barren shoots, rarely flat, firm, more or less glaucous, glabrous, except the often serrulate-fimbriate lower margins, rarely scantily hairy, smooth below, subscaberulous above, margins rough or tubercled; panicle erect, ovate or ovate-oblong, 1–4 in. by 3/4–2 in., usually rather dense; lower branches in whorls of 8–5, obliquely erect or spreading, filiform, smooth, branched from the middle or above it; branchlets contracted; lateral pedicels very short; spikelets rather crowded towards the tips of the branches, dark olive-grey, 1 1/2–2 1/4 lin. long; glumes unequal, the lower lanceolate-acuminate or acute, 2/3– 3/4 the length of the spikelet, rarely longer, 1-nerved or nerveless, the upper broad-oblong-lanceolate, acutely acuminate, somewhat longer than the valve, 1-nerved, rarely with 2 obscure side-nerves; valve very similar, sometimes with 2–4 short obscure side-nerves; pale equalling the valve; stamens 3; anthers 3/4 lin. long. null
