Tufted perennial; culms 8-50 cm high, erect, puberulous with short reflexed hairs especially below the inflorescence. Leaf-blades 4-10 cm long, 1-3.5 mm wide, flat or somewhat convolute, villous to scaberulous. Panicle ovoid to cylindrical, dense but sometimes interrupted, the axis and branches puberulous, 1.5-7.5 cm long. Spikelets 2(-3)-flowered, 4-7.5 mm long excluding the awns; glumes subequal or unequal, elliptic, acute, the lower 1-3-nerved, 3.5-5 mm long, the upper 4-6.5 mm long; lemma elliptic, 4-5.5 mm long; awn 2.5-6.5 mm long, strongly recurved.

Fl. & Fr. Per.: July-August.

Type locality: Lapland.

Distribution; Pakistan (N.W.F.P., Gilgit & Kashmir); arctic and alpine regions of the northern hemisphere.

An extremely variable grass, especially in panicle density and spikelet colour. In Europe and northern Asia it has been divided into a number of subspecies but material from our area is relatively uniform (except where it grades into Trisetum clarkei) and probably all referable to subsp. spicata. Very common at high altitudes. 3000-6000 m.