Tufted annual; culms (10-)35-95 cm high, erect or geniculately ascending, sometimes decumbent and rooting from the lower nodes. Leaf-blades flat, (3-) 15-35 cm long, (2-)3-6 mm wide, scabrid on both surfaces; ligule 4-6 mm long, truncate. Panicle broadly ovate to lanceolate, (5-)10-30 cm long, loose and open or ± contracted, green or suffused with purple; inflated tip of pedicel smooth or almost so. Spikelets 2.5-3.5(-4.5) mm long, breaking up at maturity above the persistent glumes; glumes acute, awnless, scabrid on the keel; lemma hairy, 2-3 mm long, acute, awned; awn 4-6 mm long, bent, twisted below and arising from near the base of the lemma; palea not more than a third the length of the lemma; anthers 1-1.5 mm long.

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

Type: Northwest India, Boyle 72 (LE).

Distribution: Pakistan (Punjab, N.W.F.P. & Kashmir); Himalayas and Madras.

A polymorphic species with a number of named, but not very distinct, varieties: var. pilosula has a very large, effuse panicle; var. filifolia (in Madras only) has filiform basal leaves; var. wallichiana is a small plant with a small, bright purple panicle. For var. royleana, see below.

1400-3700 m.

Agrostis munroana x Agrostis pilosula is fairly common where the parents grow together. It is largely male-sterile, but some caryopses develop in some plants and these may be viable. It is intermediate between the parents, having the narrow, purple-tinged panicle of Agrostis munroana and the longer awn of Agrostis pilosula. The palea is about half as long as the lemma. The specimens available seem to corres¬pond with Agrostis royleana Trin. (Agrostis pilosula Trin. var. royleana (Trin.) Bor) but the lectotype has not yet been examined for male-sterility.