Tufted perennial with short rhizomes; culms 15-57(-100) cm high, erect, slender. Leaf-blades 4-15 cm long, 2-7 mm wide, flat, minutely rough on the margins; ligule 0.5-1.5 mm long. Panicle 4-18 cm long, loose, nodding, the numerous spikelets borne on capillary pedicels. Spikelets 4-12-flowered, very broadly elliptic to broadly ovate, 4-7(-12) mm long and as wide, glabrous, shining, usually tinged with purple; lemmas c. 4 mm long, very broad, deeply concave, hardened and shining in the centre but with broad membranous margins.

Fl. & Fr. Per.: June-September.

Type locality: Europe.

Distribution: Kashmir; throughout Europe and northern and western Asia.

Quaking-grass is sometimes grown in gardens for the panicles which are dried and used in floral decorations. 2500-4300 m.