Culms to 2.3 m; internodes glaucous, initially setose, mainly glabrous in age with setae persistent below nodes. Culm sheaths unknown. Leaves 2–5 per ultimate branch; sheath glabrous; auricles absent or small; oral setae absent or few, erect, scabrid; ligule truncate or prominent, 1–2 mm, slightly scabrous, cilia absent; blade narrowly lanceolate, 9–22 × 1.5–2.8 cm, abaxially pubescent, rarely glabrous, secondary veins 5- or 6-paired, margins serrulate. Flowering branchlets leafy or leafless. Pseudospikelets 3 or 4, 3.5–7 cm, yellow hairy, subtended by several, sheathlike bracts 2–4 cm, with shortened blades 5–12 mm; florets 4–7. Rachilla internodes 5–6 mm, slightly compressed, densely pubescent. Glumes 2, yellow, densely hairy, many veined; lemma 1.2–1.6 cm, abaxially densely pubescent, many veined, apex acuminate, long mucronate; palea shorter and narrower than lemma, 1–1.2 cm, keels and apex ciliolate; lodicules lanceolate, margin sometimes ciliolate. Anthers yellow, ca. 4 mm. Ovary and style glabrous; stigmas 3. Fl. Mar–Apr.

The culms are used for papermaking.

* Marginal lands. C Guangdong.