Densely tufted perennial .Culms 20-35 cm high, erect, smooth below the inflorescence. Leaf-blades linear, convolute, 7-30cm long, often overtopping the inflorescence, faintly scaberulous, pungent; ligule 5-8mm long, lacerate at the tip. Inflorescence 3.5-5cm long, 3(-4)-spiculate. Spikelets 3-flowered, each subtended by a deciduous oblong hyaline scale 6-8mm long; glumes as long as the spikelet, lanceolate-acuminate, sometimes mucronate or shortly awned, the lower (5-) 7-nerved, 15-22mm long, the upper 7-nerved, 17-24mm long; lower lemma 12-15mm long, 7-nerved, hairy in the lower half with silky hairs ± 5mm long; awn 25-40mm long; uppermost floret rudimentary, comprising a lemma 2-6mm long with an awn 20-23mm long.