Densely tufted perennial; culms 80-300 cm high, erect or ascending, often branched, the nodes usually bearded. Leaf-blades linear, 10-60(80) cm long, 4-20 (-40) mm wide, flat, glabrous, long-tapering to a fine point; lowermost sheaths strongly compressed and keeled. Panicle ovate, 10-45 cm long, contracted or open, the branches mostly bare in the lower half, the lowermost conspicuously whorled. Spikelets oblong, 2.5-3.6(4) mm long, glabrous or shortly and densely pubescent, acute or subobtuse; lower glume orbicular, hyaline, a quarter to a third the length of the spikelet, rounded or shortly acute, 1-3-nerved or sometimes almost nerveless; upper glume 5-7-nerved; lower lemma 5-7-nerved, its palea almost as long; upper lemma pallid, rugulose.