Tufted perennial; culms 15-100 cm high, wiry, woody, almost suffrutescent, bulbous and clad in silky pubescent scales at the base. Leaf-blades narrowly lanceolate, 2-8 cm long, 2-4 mm wide. Inflorescence composed of 4-14 long stiff radiating racemes in 1-2 whorls, the whole inflorescence breaking off at maturity; racemes 7-25 cm long with slender sub-triquetrous rhachis, the lower half bare of spikelets and plumose, the upper half bearing distant pairs of appressed spikelets. Spikelets lanceolate, 2.5-3 mm long; lower glume a minute hyaline truncate scale; upper glume as long as the spikelet, 3-nerved, pubescent between the nerves; lower lemma as long as the spikelet, coarsely ribbed with 7 evenly spaced nerves, finely pubescent between the nerves (pubescence usually appressed and obscure, sometimes conspicuously fluffy, rarely glabrous); fruit narrowly ellipsoid, chestnut brown.

Fl. & Fr. Per.: October-February.

Type: Ethiopia, Schimper in Buchinger 1497(P).

Distribution: Pakistan (Sind & Baluchistan); tropical East Africa, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Somalia, Arabia and northern India.

A plant of dry open places but said not to be particularly good for fodder.