Plants perennial, tufted or with short rhizomes. Culms usually erect, glabrous or densely pubescent at nodes. Leaf sheath usually fibrous at base, sometimes membranous, ± pubescent; ligule 0.2–0.7 mm; auricles present or absent; leaf blade flat or sometimes involute, (3–)5–150(–175) × (0.2–)0.6–5(–7.1) cm, abaxial surface glabrous to scabrous or densely pilose, epidermis with straight or sinuous long cells, with or without silica cells, adaxial surface scabrous or densely pubescent or pilose. Spike pale glaucous to greenish or grayish violet, (2.3–)3–8.5(–9.6) × 0.4–0.8 cm; rachis brittle. Lateral spikelets: usually developed, sometimes rudimentary, pedicellate; pedicel 0.9–2.3 mm. Central spikelet: sessile or subsessile, lanceolate; glumes setaceous, equal, 5.5–6.5(–7) mm; lemma glabrous, subglabrous, pubescent, or densely pinkish violet pilose or long spinulose, apex acute-acuminate to shortly awned, awn usually shorter than lemma body; palea apex ± acute. Lodicules (0.6–) 0.8–1.4(–1.6) mm, ± pubescent distally and at margin, apex acute to acuminate. Anthers yellow to violet, (2–)2.5–4 mm. Caryopsis yellow-brown to dark violet. Fl. and fr. summer.

Steppe valleys at timberline, wet meadows, saline meadows, stream banks, salt steppes, dry valleys, dry stony slopes and other dry habitats, rarely as a weed; 1400–5000 m. Gansu, Hebei, Heilongjiang, Nei Mongol, Ningxia, Qinghai, Shaanxi, Xinjiang, Xizang [C and N Afghanistan, Kashmir, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Nepal, Pakistan, Russia, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan].