Perrenial, densely tufted grass up to 35 cm tall. Leaves in dense basal clumps with the culms single-noded, nodes often dark, almost black. Leaf-blades rolled, capillary, curved or flexuous, up to 12 cm long, about 1 mm wide, smooth, glabrous. Panicles 4-15 cm long, narrow, becoming fluffy at maturity because of plumose awns. Spicklets pale yellow tinged with purple; glumes 3-nerved, glabrous, scabrid; lemma abruptly narrowed into and articulated at tips with the awn-column; lateral branches of the awn up to 14 mm long, fine, naked, central branch purple, naked in the lower part, plumose in the upper part, 2.5-4 cm long, the plume obtuse with the hairs extenging beyond the awn-tip.