Perennial, tufted, old basal sheaths becoming fibrous. Culms wiry, 30–80 cm tall, 0.6–1.4 mm in diam. Leaf sheaths smooth; leaf blades usually rolled, 7–15 cm × 2–4(–6) mm, smooth, abaxial surface green, adaxial surface grayish green; ligule 0.7–1 mm, ca. 1.5 mm lobe on side opposite blade. Panicle linear, 10–25 cm; branches clustered at nodes, erect, flexuous, 1–2 cm, distant or slightly overlapping, bearing 1–5 spikelets. Spikelets ovate-oblong, 3.5–6.5 mm, purple or straw-colored, fertile florets 2 or 3, terminal sterile lemmas gathered into globular cluster; glumes unequal, much shorter than florets, lower glume ovate, 1.5–3.5 mm, 3–5-veined, upper glume broadly lanceolate, 2.5–4.2 mm, 5-veined, both acute; lemmas elliptic-oblong, lowest 3–5 mm, herbaceous, 7-veined, granular-scabrid, usually sparsely hirsute at middle back with stiff, 0.3–0.6 mm hairs along veins, rarely glabrous, apex obtuse or acute; palea as long as lemma, keels scaberulous. Anthers 1–1.8 mm. Fl. and fr. May–Jul.

This species has unusually short glumes, much shorter than the florets, and is also distinguished by its hirsute lemmas and short, clustered panicle branches. A specimen found in Jiangsu (Nanjing) was presumably a chance introduction.

Stony and grassy mountain slopes, rocky gullies; 1000–3900 m. Gansu, Hebei, Nei Mongol, Ningxia, Qinghai, Sichuan, Xizang [Mongolia, Russia (SE Siberia)].