Tufted perennial without rhizomes; culms 18-32 cm high, erect or geniculately ascending. Leaf-blades tightly folded or convolute, 3-9 cm long, 1.5-2 mm wide when flattened, glabrous and smooth on the lower (outer) surface; lower sheaths silvery-hyaline, shining. Spike lax, 3-6 cm long (excluding the awns), erect or nodding; rhachis joints smooth along the margins. Spikelets 4-6-flowered, 16-20 mm long (excluding the awns); glumes unequal, narrowly oblong-lanceolate, scabrid or smooth, acuminate or shortly awned (up to 2 mm), the lower 4.5-6.5 mm long (including awn), the upper 6-8 mm long (including awn); lemma oblong-elliptic, 8-9 mm long (excluding the awn), smooth or faintly scabrid on the back, produced at the tip into a stout, strongly curved awn, 1.5-4 cm long; palea as long as the body of the lemma; anthers c. 1.5 mm long.