Densely tufted perennial; culms 10-55(-70) cm high. Leaf-blades flat or rolled, 6-20 cm long, 1-2.5 mm wide, minutely pilose on the upper surface, glabrous beneath. Panicle usually contracted, 6-20 cm long, the branches erect or ascending, the longest about a third the length of the panicle. Spikelets lanceolate, 4.5-8.5 mm long; lemma narrowly lanceolate to almost linear, 3-4.5 (-5.5) mm long, densely covered with stiff white hairs 0.4-0.5(-O.7) mm long, these continued to the very tip where they conceal the 2 very short rounded apical lobes; awn 3-6 mm long, exserted from the glumes, subterminal, usually with a sharp upward bend immediately above the horizontally inserted base, deciduous; anthers 1.7-2.5 mm long, their tips densely bearded.