Tufted perennial arising from a short, stout, woody rootstock; culms up to 3 m high, the lower nodes often swollen. Leaf-blades linear-lanceolate or lanceolate, up to 50 cm long, 10-30 mm wide, glaucous or pruinose below, usually dark green above, cordate at the base and often amplexicaul, tapering to a fillform tip, False panicle linear-oblong, up to 30 cm long, erect; spatheoles narrowly elliptic to narrowly lanceolate, 2-4 cm long, green, becoming orange or reddish at maturity. Racemes 15-20 mm long, the lowermost pedicle swollen and barrel-shaped; internodes and pedicels denseley ciliate along the margins, sparsely pilose on the back. Sessile spikelet elliptic-oblong or oblong, 4-4.5 mm long; lower glume flat on the back in the upper half and with a deep V-shaped groove in the lower, the keels winged above; upper lemma deeply bifid, with an awn 12-18 mm long. Chromosome number, 2n = 20,40.