Caespitose perennial; culms up to 2 m high. Leaf-blades up to 60 cm long, markedly channelled or strongly involute, almost petiolate at the base, the lamina restricted to a narrow wing up to 2 mm wide on either side of the thick white midrib, glaucous. Panicle 20-35 cm long, the peduncle glabrous; racemes 1.5-2.5 cm long, shorter than the supporting branches, the internodes and pedicels hirsute with hairs 4-6 mm long. Spikelets all alike, 4-5(-8) mm long, the callus bearded with dense cream or yellowish hairs up to 4 mm long; glumes equal, membranous, sparsely or densely hairy on the back; lower lemma narrowly lanceolate, acute or awned with an awn up to 4 mm long, rarely as long as 10 mm, often projecting beyond the tips of the glumes.

Fl. & Fr. Per.: (April-) June-September (-November).

Type: Afghanistan, Aitchison 507.

Distribution: Pakistan (Sind, Baluchistan, Punjab & N.W.FY.); Afghanistan.

Awnless forms of Saccharum griffithii are distinguished from Saccharum bengalense by the presence of hairs on the upper glume of the sessile spikelet. Apart from this the hairs of the internodes, pedicels and callus in Saccharum griffithii are shorter than in Saccharum bengalense and cream or yellow rather than silver or greyish.