Perennial with hard scaly creeping: rhizomes; culms erect, slender, glabrous, up it 50 cm high, clothed with scarious sheaths at the base. Leaf-blades 3.15, cm long, 2-5 mm wide, scabrid on the margins. minutely. furrowed between the nerves. Inflorescence up to 15 cm long,. Composed of 4-8 ascending or eventually spreading or drooping racemes 1-7 cm long. Spikelets wedge-shaped, 6-9 mm long, (2-) 4-5-flowered; lower glume 2.8-5.4 mm long, upper glume (3)35.6 mm long; lemmas 4.5-5.7 mm long, tinged with purple or almost black.