Tufted perennial 30-70 cm high. Leaf-blades involute and setaceous, up to 2.5 mm wide when flattened, glabrous or densely pubescent on the lower (outer) surface; ligule 4-6 mm long. Panicle linear but not dense, 15-35 cm long, partially enclosed by the slightly inflated sheath of the uppermost leaf. Glumes narrowly lanceolate, long-acuminate, (20-)25-35 mm long, 3(-5)-nerved; lemma terete, 8-11.5 mm long (including callus), shortly hairy with rows of hairs not quite reaching the summit, with a crown of hairs at the tip; callus acuminate, pungent. Awn bigeniculate, articulated at the base, 10-16(-20) cm long; column shortly hairy (hairs 0.5-1.3 mm long); bristle plumose with hairs 2-4 mm long.

Type: Sinai, Schimper 107 (K).

Distribution: Pakistan (Baluchistan & N.W.F.P.); Sinai eastwards through Iran, the Caucasus and Afghanistan to Pakistan and southern USSR.

The frequently cited reference Stipa szowitsiana Trin. ex Hohen. in Bull. Soc. Nat. Moscou 11:243. 1838 is that of a nomen nudum and does not count for priority. Work is still needed on the infra-specific classification of Stipa arabica, but it seems that in Pakistan it is represented by subsp. caspia (C. Koch) Tzvelev in Nov. Sist. Vyssh. Rast. 11:16. 1974.