Tufted perennials to c. 35 cm; branching intravaginal from a short branching rhizome to 4 mm diam.; plants sometimes stoloniferous. Leaf-sheath flattened, keeled, firmly chartaceous, mostly glabrous, occasionally with a few scattered long tubercle-based hairs. Ligule 0.7-1.5 mm, a membranous densely long-ciliate rim. Collar hairs few, long, tubercle-based. Leaf-blade 8-30 cm × 2-4 mm, rather stiff, light green or bluish green, linear, flat, or folded and 0.6-1.5 mm diam., tapering, abaxially glabrous, strongly ribbed, ribs scabrid near tip, adaxially shallowly ribbed, minutely scabrid on ribs, sometimes with a few scattered, long, tubercle-based hairs; margins scabrid, tip acute. Culm 10-30-(45) cm, erect or geniculate-ascending, simple, or branching at lower nodes, internodes softly long-hairy below inflorescence. Panicle 4-11 cm, conspicuously plumose, broadly cylindric to subglobose, ± dense, light silvery green or light brown, rarely purplish; rachis softly long-hairy. Spikelets 8-11 mm, lanceolate, acuminate, cream, sometimes purple-tipped, solitary, or in clusters of 2-4, on very short, densely soft-hairy pedicels, surrounded by a plumose involucre of many, cream, sometimes purple, unequal bristles (25-40 mm), finely scabrid throughout with long soft hairs in lower ½. Glumes membranous, unequal in size and shape; lower 0.5-1.2 mm, broad, truncate-erose, nerveless, upper 2.5-5.5 mm, narrow, tapered, 1-nerved. Lower floret ♂ or Ø: lemma 7-9.3 mm, membranous, 7-9-nerved, very minutely scabrid with longer prickle-teeth on midnerve near acute tip; palea 6-8 mm, hyaline, keels with scattered short hairs, interkeel with minute hairs near bifid apex, occasionally palea 0; anthers 3.5-4.5 mm, occasionally 0. Upper floret ☿: lemma 8.5-11 mm, membranous, 7-9-nerved, glabrous, nerves minutely prickle-toothed; palea ± rounded, keels becoming scabrid and more prominent near bifid apex, interkeel minutely scabrid; lodicules minute, or 0; anthers 3.5-4.5 mm; styles connate; caryopsis c. 2.5 mm.