Tufted perennial; culms 20-55 cm high, erect or geniculately ascending. Leaf-blades flat, folded or convolute, 6-12 cm long, 1-3.5 mm wide, glaucous, scaberulous above. Panicle contracted or spreading, 7-19 cm long, the branches ascending, bare in the lower part, scabrid. Spikelets 6-9 mm long, 3-5-flowered, variegated or deeply suffused with purple; glumes oblong or elliptic-oblong, acute, the lower 1.5-25 mm long, 1-nerved, the upper 2-3.2 mm long, 3-nerved; lemmas 3.5-4.5 mm long, elliptic, acute, glabrous, the mid-nerve reaching the tip; palea keels smooth below, scabrid above; anthers 2-3 mm long.