Perennial; culms erect or geniculately ascending, up to 150 cm high. Leaf-blades up to 30 cm long and 5 mm wide, whitish, narrowed at the base, attenuate to a filiform tip; basal sheaths glabrous, flat or coiled; ligule 0.5-4 mm long. False panicle 15-40 cm long, erect; spatheoles lanceolate to narrowly elliptic, becoming reddish, 1.5-2.5 cm long. Racemes 13-22 mm long, lowest pedicel not swollen; internodes and pedicels densely ciliate along the margins and on the hack. Sessile spikelet lanceolate, 4.5-5.5 mm long; lower glume shallowly concave on the back; upper lemma deeply bifid, with an awn 7-10 mm long. Chromosome number, 2n = 20.