Loosely tufted perennial; culms 25-75cm high, ascending from a procumbent base and often rooting from the lower nodes, clothed below by the leathery remains of old leaf-sheaths. Leaf-blades flat, 6-20cm long, 2 4nnn wide, flaccid, gradually tapering to a rather stout tip, scabrid on the margins and both surfaces; ligule pointed or blunt, 2.5-4mm long. Panicle narrow, 8-15cm long, lax; branches few, 1-2(-3) at the lower nodes, erect, flexuous, smooth. Spikelets 2-3-flowered, oblong-elliptic when young, the florets widely diverging at maturity, 7-8mm long; glumes unequal, oblong-ovate, the lower 3.5-4mm long, 1(-3)-nerved, the upper broader, 4.5-5mm long, 3-nerved; lemmas oblong or elliptic-oblong in side-view, 4-5mm long, acute, shortly ciliate on the keel and marginal nerves and with short rather coarse hairs on the surface between the nerves below, without any wool at the base; palea shorter than the lemma, coarsely scabrid along the keels; anthers c. 3mm long.