Tufted perennial 17-25(-75) cm high. Leaf-blades flat or folded, 1-5 mm wide, pubescent to glabrous below, puberulous above; ligule 1-1.5 mm long. Panicle contracted, untidy when mature, 6-12(-22) cm long, partially enclosed by the slightly inflated sheath of the uppermost leaf, eventually ± fully exserted. Glumes subequal, narrowly lanceolate and long-acuminate, 20-25 mm long, 3-nerved; lemma ± terete, 8-10 mm long (including callus), thinly pubescent to glabrous except in the lower part where the short hairs are confined to straight lines, and at the tip where there is a crown of stiffer hairs; callus acuminate, pungent, 1.8-2.3 mm long. Awns bigeniculate, articulated at the base, becoming en-tangled at maturity to form a tail at the summit of the panicle, 55-90 mm long, thinly hairy throughout with hairs not exceeding 0.8 mm long.