Perennial, densely tufted; old basal sheaths forming large clumps, yellowish, slightly glossy, margins ciliate. Culms 15–35 cm tall, 2–3-noded, nodes purple, internodes puberulous. Basal leaves 1/2–2/3 length of culms; leaf sheaths shorter than internodes; leaf blades filiform, convolute, 4–15 cm, abaxial surface scaberulous-puberulous; ligule lanceolate, 2–4 mm, ciliate. Panicle contracted, 4–8 cm, branches frequently enclosed by inflated uppermost leaf sheath. Spikelets green, or occasionally faintly purple-tinged, with silvery tips; glumes narrowly lanceolate, lower usually slightly longer, 1.8–2.2 cm, apex scarious, finely long-acuminate; callus pungent, ca. 2 mm; lemma 7–8 mm, pilose in ventral line and along midvein, intermediate veins pilose at least below middle, a ring of short soft hairs at awn articulation; awn deciduous, 4–6 cm, hairy throughout, 2-geniculate, column 0.7–1.2 cm to first bend, 0.5–0.8 cm to second bend, shortly hairy, hairs 0.5–1 mm, bristle 3–4 cm, plumose, hairs 3–4 mm at base reducing toward apex. Fl. and fr. May–Jul.

This is a good forage grass in desert steppe regions.

Rocky slopes, mountain valleys, desert steppes; 400–5100 m. Qinghai, Xinjiang, Xizang [Kashmir, Kyrgyzstan, W Mongolia, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan; Europe (Ural)].