Tufted perennial; culms 15–40cm high, erect or geniculately ascending, clothed at the base with the hardened remains of old leaf-sheaths forming a bulbous swelling. Leaf-blades flat or folded, mostly basal, 2–10cm long, (0.5–)1–2 mm wide, abruptly contracted to a hooded tip, smooth or scaberulous; ligule acute, 1-3mm long. Panicle ovate, 2–6(–9)cm long, compact; branches paired, ascending, scabrid. Spikelets 2–6–flowered, ovate-oblong, 3–6mm long, often tinged with purple; glumes subequal, broadly ovate, 2–3mm long, the lower 1–nerved, the upper 3–nerved; lemmas oblong–lanceolate in side-view, 2.5–3.5mm long, acute, ciliate on the keel and marginal nerves or sometimes ± glabrous, usually densely woolly at the base; palea almost as long as the lemma, scabrid along the keels; anthers 1–1.5mm long.