Tufted perennial without rhizomes; culms 4-15(-25)cm high, erect, slender. Leaf-blades folded-setaceous, up to 10cm long, smooth on the lower (outer) surface, green, with 3 sclerenchyma strands, 1 on the keel and 1 along each margin, 7-nerved, the outermost pair of nerves ± equal in size to the innermost; ligule a narrow rim c. 03mm long. Panicle narrowly oblong, 1.5-5cm long, contracted, the branches ascending, ± appressed to the main axis, faintly scabrid. Spikelets 3-5-flowered, 4-6.5mm long (excluding the awns), green and usually tinged with purple; lower glume 1.5-3mm long, 1-nerved; upper glume 3-4.5mm long, 3-nerved; lemmas oblong-elliptic in side-view, 3.5-4.2mm long, scabrid towards the tip, with an awn 1-2mm long; palea-keels scabrid, sometimes smooth below: anthers 113mm long; ovary glabrous.