Plants loosely tufted; shoots extravaginal. Culms 60–75 cm tall, nodes 3–4, dark purple. Leaf sheaths glabrous, uppermost 16–22 cm, much longer than its blade; auricles present as erect swellings or absent; leaf blades flat or involute, erect, rigid, 6–16 cm × 1.5–3.5 mm, uppermost much shorter, veins 7–13; adaxial to abaxial sclerenchyma strands present; ligule 0.3–1.5 mm, margin ciliolate. Panicle loose, open, 11–18 cm;branches ascending, 6–11 cm, 2 at lowest node, lower 1/2 naked. Spikelets 8–9 mm; florets 3–4; lower glume glabrous, 5–6 mm, apex acuminate; upper glume, 7–8 mm, scabrid on upper keel, apex acuminate; rachilla internodes 0.9–1.1 mm, hispidulous; lemmas 6.5–7.5 mm, pubescent; awns (absent to) 0.8–2 mm; palea keels ciliolate. Anthers 1.2–1.8 mm. Ovary apex glabrous or sparsely hairy. Fl. and fr. Jul–Sep.

The relationships of this species are uncertain, although it has been placed in Festuca subg. Drymanthele.

* Alpine meadows, grassy mountain slopes, forests; 2600–4800 m. Gansu, Qinghai, Sichuan.