Caespitose perennial; culms up to 180 cm high, erect. Leaf laminas 15–40 cm × 2–7 mm, flat. Inflorescence 10–25 cm long, with a short central axis 2–9 cm long; racemes 4–14, each 8–20 cm long; internodes and pedicels clavate, often inflated upwards, mostly glabrous. Sessile spikelet ovate, pallid, sometimes purplish; callus without a central peg; inferior glume 3.5–5 mm long, thinly coriaceous, flat across the back, indistinctly nerved, smooth and glabrous, bordered by a distinct but narrow coriaceous wing, obtuse to emarginate at the apex. Pedicelled spikelet occasionally resembling the sessile spikelet but usually smaller and sometimes vestigial, without a callus; pedicel from half as long to as long as the internode.