Caespitose perennial; culms 15–60 cm. high. Leaf-blades filiform to involute or acicular, 3–25 cm. long and up to 3 mm. wide; ligule up to 1 mm. long. Panicle subspiciform to linear, 8–20 cm. long, the short branches scabrid and closely appressed to the axis. Spikelets 2–6-flowered, lanceolate to narrowly ovate, 6.5–12 mm. long, not gaping, purplish-green; glumes broad, with membranous margins, embracing the spikelet and ± three-quarters its length; lower glume lanceolate, 5.5–8.5 mm. long, 1–3-nerved (nearly always 3-nerved in at least some of the spikelets in a panicle); upper glume lanceolate to narrowly ovate, 6–10 mm. long, 3(–5)-nerved; lemmas scaberulous, the lower 6.5–9.5 mm. long, with an awn-point 1–3(–5) mm. long from the tip or sometimes awnless; palea as long as the lemma, the keels scaberulous; ovary glabrous or hairy on top.