Tufted rhizomatous perennial; culms 17-65cm high, erect or geniculately ascending, clothed at the base with the remains of old leaf-sheaths, these becoming fibrous with age. Leaf-blades rolled or folded, sometimes flat, 6-20cm long, 4-5 mm wide, tapering to a very stout point, scabrid on the margins and upper surface; ligule lacerate, 2-4.5mm long. Panicle contracted, often spiciform, 5-12cm long; branches 2-4 at the lower nodes, erect, smooth. Spikelets 3-4-flowered, oblong-elliptic, 6-7mm long, greenish or flushed with pale pinkish-yellow or suffused with varying shades of purple; glumes unequal, lanceolate or elliptic, 3-nerved, the lower 2.8-4.5mm long, the upper broader, 3.5-5.5mm long, often lacerate or toothed on the margins above; lemmas oblong or elliptic in side-view, 4-5.25mm long, acute, silky hairy on the keel and marginal nerves, minutely asperulous all over the dorsal surface, without any wool at the base; palea shorter than the lemma, the keels with prickles below and teeth above; anthers 1.5-2.5mm long.