Densely caespitose perennial; culms up to 60 cm tall, erect or ascending from a procumbent base, simple or branched at the lower nodes, wiry; leaf laminas 3–20 cm × 1–4 mm, flat or convolute, tapering to a fine point.Inflorescence 3–8(10) cm long, oblong, the spikelets densely crowded; pedicels 2–4 mm long, villous, usually unbranched but the lowermost occasionally carrying 2 spikelets.Spikelets 10–14(17) mm long, 6–13-flowered, cuneate, the florets loosely imbricate with the slender sinuous rhachilla often visible, pale green tinged with purple; glumes linear-oblong, subacute, the inferior 1.6–2 mm long, the superior 2.8–3.5 mm long; lowermost lemma (3)3.2–3.5 mm long, lanceolate in profile, acute, successive lemmas becoming progressively narrower and more sharply pointed, the longest 4–6.8 mm long, thinly membranous or sometimes cartilaginous in the lower third.