Tufted perennial 25-40 cm high. Leaf-blades involute and setaceous, up to 1.5 mm wide when flattened, smooth and glabrous on the lower (outer) surface; ligule c. 1 mm long. Panicle narrow, contracted but not dense, 10-25 cm long. Glumes unequal, the lower a little longer than the upper, narrowly lanceolate and long-acuminate with fragile tips, 10-25 mm long, 3-nerved; lemma terete, 5-7 mm long (including callus), hairy in the lower part with rows of short hairs, glabrous in the middle, spinulose-scabrid towards the top and with a crown of short stiff hairs at the tip; callus acuminate, pungent, 0.9-1.3 mm long. Awn bigeniculate, articulated at the base, 5.5-8 cm long, plumose throughout its length with hairs scarcely exceeding 0.8 mm in length.

Type: Tibet, Schlagintweit 7105 (LE).

Distribution: Kashmir; Himalayas, Tian Shan, Pamir, Mongolia and Tibet.

A distinctive species recognised at once by the spinulose-scabrid lemma. 3100-4500m.