Plant loosely or densely tufted; shoots extravaginal. Culms 60–90 cm tall, nodes 2–3. Leaf sheaths glabrous; auricles absent; leaf blades flat (at culm) or involute (at base), (7–)14–25(–27) cm × 1.5–2.6 mm, margins scaberulous, veins 5–7; adaxial to abaxial sclerenchyma strands absent, abaxial sclerenchyma in narrow discrete strands; ligule 0.3–0.6(–0.8) mm, margin sometimes ciliate. Panicle loose, nodding, 10–20 cm, base enclosed by uppermost leaf sheath; branches erect or ascending, (3–)9–12 cm, (1–)2 at lower nodes. Spikelets 7–10 (–12) mm; florets 3–5(–7); glumes glabrous or sparsely hairy; lower glume narrowly lanceolate, 2.1–3(–5) mm; upper glume lanceolate, occasionally broadly lanceolate, 3.8–6 mm; rachilla internodes 1–1.5(–2) mm, scabrid; lemmas 4.8–7 mm, scabrid upward; awns (4–)5–9 mm; palea 5–6 mm, keels scabrid. Anthers 1.2–2 mm. Ovary apex glabrous, or rarely sparsely hairy. Fl. and fr. Jun–Sep.

* Forests, mountain slopes, meadows; 2500–4100 m. Gansu, Hubei, Shaanxi, Sichuan, Xizang, Yunnan.