Perennial, tufted from a tough rootstock. Culms erect, 120–160 cm tall, 3–5 mm in diam., 8–10-noded, unbranched. Leaf sheaths glabrous; leaf blades linear-lanceolate, 30–60 × 1.2–1.8 cm, abaxial surface thinly pilose, adaxial surface scaberulous, base of lower blades narrowed into up to 8 cm pseudopetiole, upper blades narrowed to sheath, apex finely acuminate; ligule 1.4–1.5 mm, back villous. Panicle open, 10–30 cm; branches in distant whorls, capillary, flexuous, 5–15 cm, mostly unbranched, tipped by a raceme; racemes 2–5-noded with 7–13 spikelets, sometimes branched with up to 40 spikelets, disarticulating at maturity, one spikelet of a pair sessile, the other pedicellate; rachis internodes and pedicels slenderly clavate, margins ciliate, hairs 0.7–1 mm. Spikelets 4.5–5 mm; callus hairs ca. 1 mm; lower glume lanceolate, thinly pilose, veins smooth below middle, scaberulous above, apex acuminate; upper glume ciliate on margins, acuminate or emarginate and mucronate; lower floret sterile, palea reduced; upper lemma 2-lobed to middle; awn 5.5–8 mm. Anthers 2–3 mm. Fl. and fr. Aug–Nov.

This is a robust species lacking creeping, scaly rhizomes. The pseudopetiolate lower leaf blades are often missing on herbarium specimens, but the species can also be recognized by the long, flexuous panicle branches.

* Moist grasslands. Sichuan (Miyi), Yunnan.