Hermaphroditic. Perennials; not tufted, extensively rhizomatous, with lateral and downward tending, cataphyllous shoots, shoots generally solitary, green or bluish-grey-green; tillers extravaginal, cataphyllous, spreading. Culms 15--60 cm tall, erect, bases usually geniculate (sometimes slightly zig-zag), wiry, leafy, strongly compressed, usually moderately antrorsely (sometimes bidirectionally) scabrous below the panicle and nodes; nodes strongly compressed, 3--4 nodes usually exerted, including the lower culm ones, distinctly dark brown or purple. Leaves; leaf sheaths distinctly compressed, basal most sheaths, bulb absent, more or less smooth; butt-sheaths, papery, smooth, glabrous; flag-leaf sheath ca. 2--6 cm long, margins fused 10--20% the length, subequal to its blade; throats and collars smooth or slightly scabrous, glabrous; collars flared outward; ligules 1--3 mm long, abaxially moderately to densely scabrous, upper margin ciliolate, apices obtuse; of sterile shoots like those of the culm; blades 1.5--3 (--4) mm wide, flat or folded, abaxially smooth, veins slightly expressed, margins scabrous, adaxially lightly scabrous over the veins, apices abruptly prow-tipped; cauline blades subequal, sterile shoot blades like those of the culm. Panicles 2--10 cm long, generally 1/6--1/3 broad as long, erect, contracted or slightly open, linear, lanceoloid to ovoid, often interrupted, sparse to congested, with 15 to 80 spikelets; axis scabrous angled, with mostly 1--3 branches per node; primary branches erect to ascending, or infrequently spreading, fairly strict, 2--3 angled, angles distinctly scabrous (at least in part); lateral pedicels 1/5--2/3 their spikelet in length, scabrous, prickles moderately coarse; longest branches 0.5--3 cm, with 1--15 spikelets. Spikelets (2.3--)3.5--7 mm long, laterally compressed, not bulbiferous, grayish-green, often violaceous tinged, not lustrous; florets 3--7, hermaphroditic; rachilla internodes mostly less than 1 mm long, muriculate; glumes lanceolate, subequal, distinctly keeled, keels scabrous, apices acute; lower glumes ca. 2 mm long, 3-veined; upper glumes ca. 2.1 mm long, 3-veined; calluses glabrous or more often webbed; web distinct, hairs short, woolly, sparse; lemmas 2.3--3.5 mm long, 5-veined, lanceolate, distinctly keeled, keels and marginal veins short villous proximally, between veins smooth, glabrous, intermediate veins obscure, margins narrowly scarious-hyaline, edges smooth or with sparsely scaberulous, apices obtuse to acute, slightly incurved; paleas densely scabrous over the keels, between keels smooth. Flowers bisexual; lodicules ca. 0.6 mm long, lanceolate, with a subequal lateral lobe in the upper 2/3; anthers (1--)1.3--1.8 mm long; (1--1.2 JRE, 1--1.3 Portal) ave. longer in NA; caryopses 1.2--1.6 mm long, elliptical in side-view, subcylindrical in cross-section, reddish-brown, shallowly sulcate, hilum 0.2 mm long, round, grain adherent to the palea. 2n = 35, 42, 49, 50, 56. Genotype: Ss