Loosely tufted perennial; culms 45-65 cm high or more, erect or geniculately ascending, glabrous. Leaf-blades 7-20 cm long, 3-6(-9) mm wide, flat, thinly it villous to scaberulous. Panicle oblong to narrowly lanceolate, dense or rather loose and interrupted, the axis and branches glabrous, 5-15 cm long, 1.5-2.5 cm wide. Spikelets 2-flowered with the rhachilla tipped with a rudimentary floret up to 1 mm long, or 3-flowered without a rhachilla extension, 5.5-8.5 mm long excluding the awns; glumes subequal or unequal, lanceolate, acute or acuminate, the lower 1-nerved, 3.5-5.5 mm long, the upper 4.5-6.5 mm long; lemma elliptic, 5-5.5 mm long, scaberulous below; awn 6-9.5 mm long, strongly recurved.

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

Type locality: Kashmir and Northwest India.

Distribution: Pakistan (N.W.F.P. & Kashmir); Nepal and Northwest India.

Common in the alpine zone between 2600 and 3600 m.