Perennial, tufted. Culms erect, 50–80 cm tall, 2–3-noded. Leaf sheaths smooth or scabrid; leaf blades flat or involute, 10–15 cm, 1–3 mm wide, scabrid; ligule 4–5 mm. Panicle open, ovate in outline, 7–12 × 5–8 cm; branches in whorls of 3–6, curving, spreading or ascending, 2–8 cm, smooth or scabrid, lower 1/2–2/3 bare; pedicels curved, slightly scabrid. Spikelets 5–7 mm, purple; glumes narrowly lanceolate, subequal or lower glume slightly longer than upper, lower glume 1-veined, upper glume 3-veined, scabrid, apex acuminate; callus hairs ca. 1/3 length of lemma; lemma ca. 3 mm, apex 4-toothed; awn arising from upper 1/4–1/3 of lemma, straight, ca. 4 mm; palea ca. 2/3 as long as lemma; rachilla 1–1.5 mm, including hairs 3.5–4 mm. Anthers ca. 1 mm. Fl. Aug.

Specimens from Xizang are sometimes confused with Deyeuxia pulchella or D. scabrescens, but can be distinguished by the laxer panicle with curving branches and by the narrower glumes.

* Grassy mountainsides, among alpine shrubs; 3500–4700 m. Sichuan, Xizang.