Tufted perennial, culms erect or somewhat arcuate, up to 65 cm high. Leaf-blades convolute or the uppermost flat at the base, up to 30 cm long, 1-1.5 mm wide. Panicle narrow, densely contracted, up to 12 cm long, the branches strictly erect. Spikelets green; glumes very unequal; lower glume lanceolate, 5.5-8 mm long, acute or acuminate, with a short awn-point, upper glume narrowly lanceolate, 14-16 mm long, bifid at the apex with an awn up to 5 mm long in the sinus; lemma terete, convolute, 3-4.5 mm long, glabrous, not narrowed above, articulated at the apex; callus up to 1 mm long, curved, sharply pointed; column 20-25 mm long, strongly twisted; central branch of the awn up to 6 cm long, slightly divergent and curved at the base; lateral branches 2.5-3.5 cm long, erect.