Loosely tufted perennial; culms up to 70 cm high. Leaf-blades up to 20 cm long, 3-4mm wide, hairy above, scabrid beneath; sheaths glabrous or the lowest hairy when young. Panicle 10-20 cm long, very loose, the branches long and flexuous, usually each with a single spikelet. Spikelets lanceolate, 5-9-flowered, 18-25 mm long excluding the awns, the lemmas overlapping at first, later gaping and partially exposing the internodes; glumes pubescent, the lower lanceolate, acuminate, 12-1.5 mm long, 1-nerved, the upper lanceolate, shortly awned, 14-17 mm long, 3-nerved; lemmas narrowly lanceolate in side view, the lower 11-16 mm long, densely pubescent all over, 7-nerved, shortly 2-toothed, awned from between the teeth; awn stout, scabrid, 12-18 mm long, erect or recurved; palea shorter than the lemma, ciliolate on the back and keels; anthers 1.5-2 mm long.