Small, often forming a dense stand but not clump-forming; rhizomes running extensively. Culm usually 0.5-1.5 m, purple or green, very slender, puberulent when young, erect; internodes terete. Culm-sheath with few oral bristles; sheath-blade ovate, puberulent, ciliolate. Branches 1 at lower or middle nodes and 1-2 at upper nodes. Leaf-sheath finely puberulent. Ligule abbreviated. Oral bristles few and caducous. Leaf-blade usually 10-18 × 1.5-3 cm, narrowly elliptic-lanceolate, finely puberulent especially abaxially, either uniformly green or, more usually, longitudinally striped with pale green, greenish yellow or yellow, some leaves mainly yellow with narrow green streaks.