Densely caespitose perennial, up to 80 cm high. Leaf-blades filiform, rolled, 2-20 cm long, smooth, stiff, pungent, somewhat glaucous, flexuous. Panicle 10-25 cm long, contracted or somewhat loose. Spikelets pallid, sometimes with a purple spot at the base; glumes subequal, glabrous, 12-14 mm long; lemma (including the column) 10-11 mm long, smooth, passing gradually into the awn without an obvious column or column well-developed and up to 3.5 mm long; callus 2.5 mm long, acute, shortly pubescent with longer hairs at the base of the lemma; column glabrous, becoming detached at maturity with the conical upper portion of the lemma; central branch of the awn 4-5 on long, plumose in the upper two-thirds but with an excurrent naked tip; lateral branches glabrous, up to 25 mm long.