General: Perennial tufted grass from fibrous roots; stems 15-90 cm tall.
Leaves: Sheaths open, smooth to hairy with short hairs; lower blades 0.5-1.5 mm wide, upper blades to 2.5 mm wide; lower ligules 0.5-1.2 mm long, blunt to pointed, the upper ligules to 2.5 mm long.
Flowers: Inflorescence a narrow panicle, 7-21 cm long, the branches straight, appressed to ascending, the spikelets appressed to the branches; florets somewhat flattened laterally rather than rounded; glumes 7-11.5 mm long, smooth; lemmas 3-4.5 mm long, leathery, smooth above, short-hairy below, the hairs 0.5 mm long, the tips with thick, 0.1 mm long lobes at the ends, awned, the awns 16-30 mm long, the first segments rough or short-hairy, persistent; paleas 3/4 as long as the lemmas or nearly equal to them, the calluses 0.4-1.2 mm long, blunt.
