Culms densely tufted, rarely solitary, (6-)12-30 cm high, erect or geniculately ascending. Leaf-blades up to 12 cm long, 1.5-4 mm wide, scabrid, hairy. Spike 2.5-5 cm long (excluding the awns), dense, sometimes partially enclosed in the uppermost leaf-sheath. Fertile spikelet: glumes 2.5-5 mm long, hairy on the back, produced into an awn up to 11 mm long; lemma with yellow or brownish body 4-6(-8) mm long, papillose on the back, ± villous, produced at the tip into a green or purplish, flattened scabrid awn 20-25 mm long.