Perennia shrubby grass with short woody rootstock. Clums up to 1 m (or more) tall, branched throughout and woody. Leaf 2-7.7 cm long, rigid, inrolled, pungent, glaucous; sheaths more or less inflated, persistent (after the leaf-glade fall off) at the node. Panicle oblong to more or less cylindrical, 5-12 cm long, 10 mm wide; spikelets enclosed singly by the involucre with bristles up to 7-20 mm long. Spikelets narrowly lanceolate, 6.5-8.5 mm long.