Tufted perennial without rhizomes; culms 10-35cm high, erect, slender. Leaf-blades folded-setaceous, up to 15cm long, smooth on the lower (outer) surface, ± green, with sclerenchyma in the form of a continuous cover on the lower epidermis or this broken up into 3-7 separate but extensive strands of which that on the keel is the widest, 5-7-nerved; ligule a narrow rim c. 0.3mm long. Panicle narrowly oblong, 2-6cm long, contracted, the branches ascending, ± appressed to the main axis, scabrid. Spikelets 3-5-flowered, 4.5-7mm long (excluding the awns); lower glume 2.2-3mm long, 1-nerved; upper glume 3-4.2mm long, 3-nerved; lemmas narrowly oblong-lanceolate in side-view, 3.3-4.5mm long, scabrid towards the tip, with an awn 1-2mm long; palea-keels scabrid in the upper third or two-thirds; anthers 1.4-1.8mm long; ovary glabrous.