Erect or straggling suffruticose perennial, often with a decumbent base; culms slender or stout, up to 3m high. Leaf-blades 6-20cm long, 3-6(-12)mm wide, often conspicuously narrowed at the base. Inflorescence 5-12cm long; racemes with 2-6 sessile spikelets, rarely reduced to a triad of 1 sessile and 2 pedicelled spikelets. Sessile spikelet narrowly oblong, 1.8-2.5(-3)mm long, scabrid or pubescent, blunt; lower glume concave or flat on the back, with 2-4 intercarinal nerves; awn 6-12mm long. Pedicelled spikelet lanceolate, 3-4.5mm long.