Caespitose perennial; culms erect, 10-40 cm high. Leaves mostly basal; blades mostly 2-20 cm long and 2-3 mm wide, flat or rolled, coarsely ridged above, scaberulous on the ridges, smooth beneath; ligule scarious, up to 8 mm long. Panicle oblong or ovoid, 2-5 cm long, 1-1.5 cm wide, contracted and often spikelike. Spikelets narrowly oblong, 4-5 mm long, 2-flowered, usually purple with a golden sheen; glumes acute or obtuse, often lacerate at the tip, the lower oblong, 3-3.6 mm long, the upper elliptic 3.6-2 mm long and 3-nerved; lemma elliptic-oblong, 3.3-4.3 mm long, 2-lobed, the lobes irregularly lacerate, awned from near the base (always within the lower third); awns mostly straight, capillary, 2.5-4 mm long, usually projecting beyond the glumes.