Tufted perennial with scaly rhizomes; culms 60-180 cm high, erect. Leaf-blades linear or convolute, 8-30 cm long, 3-10 mm wide, stiff, scaberulous, glabrous or hirsute. Panicle oblong, open or contracted, 10-40 cm long, the branches subsecund and densely spiculate. Spikelets lanceolate, 4-6 mm long, glabrous; lower glume ovate 3-5 mm long, acutely or setaceously acuminate; upper glume narrowly ovate, acuminate with an obtuse tip; lower lemma 34 mm long, obtuse; upper lemma ovate, 2-2.5 mm long, emarginate with a geniculate awn 4-6 mm long; callus bearded with hairs 0.5-1 mm long; palea with door-like flaps.

Type: Nepal, Wallich(?) in Lindley (LE, ?K).

Distribution: Pakistan (Punjab, N.W.F.P. & Kashmir); tropical and South Africa; Madagascar; India to China and Australia.