Culms 60–100 cm tall, 3–4 mm thick. Leaf sheaths smooth, glabrous; leaf blades broadly lanceolate, flat or conduplicate, 20–50 × 1.5–2.5 cm, glabrous, midrib pronounced on abaxial surface, margins scaberulous, apex acuminate; ligule 4–5 mm. Panicle lax, open, up to 50 × 15 cm; branches rather distant, usually solitary, ascending to widely spreading, smooth. Spikelets 5–7 mm (including stipe); callus stipe 1–2 mm, scabrous, slightly curved, basal subulate glume vestiges up to 1.5 mm occasionally present; lemma body lanceolate, ca. 4 mm, 5-veined, spinulose along veins, sulcate between veins, apex acuminate, awnless; palea narrowly lanceolate, 3-veined, spinulose along veins. Anther 1.5–2 mm. Caryopsis dark brown, ca. 2 mm. Fl. and fr. Aug–Oct.

Damp streamsides in forests. Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan [Indonesia (Sumatra)].