Perennial, mostly 1-1.5 m tall, erect, usually unbranched; culms glabrous, striate. Leaves glabrous except for scabrid margins; sheaths +/- as long as internodes; blades 25-55 cm long, 3-10 mm wide. Panicles terminal, 6-20 cm long, held above the leaves, the primary axis glabrous, the branches usually 1- or 2-branched, bearded at their base; racemes mostly 1.5-4 cm long; rachis and sterile pedicel villous; spikelets in pairs, one sessile, perfect, ca 3 mm long, the other pedicellate, sterile, ca 2.5 mm long; sessile spikelet bearing a tuft of trichomes at the base and a pubescent, reddish-brown, geniculate awn 8-13 mm long; glumes brown to purplish, the glume of the sessile spikelet pubescent toward the base. Fruits not seen. Croat 6973, 16523.