Laxly caespitose perennial; culms 40-190 cm high. Leaf-blades up to 60 cm long, 6-15 mm wide, flat, sparsely hairy, the lower wider than the upper; sheaths pubescent with long, rigid, retrorse hairs. Panicle 15-40 cm long, very wide and lax, nodding, the lowest branch with a ciliate scale at the base, the pedicels 5-30 mm long. Spikelets narrowly oblong, laxly 4-12-flowered, 20-40 mm long, green or rarely purplish; lower glume subulate, 6-8 mm long, 1-nerved; upper glume lanceolate, 9-11 mm long, 3-nerved, mucronate or shortly awned; lemmas lanceolate with obscurely angled margins, the lower 10-13 mm long, 7-nerved, hairy on the margins and nerves, awned; awn straight, 4-7 mm long; palea distinctly shorter than the lemma, shortly ciliolate on the keels; anthers 1.5-3.5(-4) mm long.