Perennial, densely tufted grass up to 80 cm tall. Culms leafy with dense, long-hairy nodes. Leaf-blades usually rolled, filiform, 2-20 cm long, 0.5-2 mm wide. Panicles robust, up to 25 cm long, strict or loose. Glumes pale, often purple at the base, 3-nerved, glabrous; lemma, passing gradually into the awn, articulated at about its middle from where it separates providing a hollow, cupulate base to the awn; lateral branches of the awn up to 25 mm long, naked, central branche up to 50 mm long, naked in the lower third, plumose in upper 2/3rd except for the naked tip.