Rhizomatous perennial; culms 30-150 cm high, erect. Leaf-blades flat, folded or convolute, 10-45 cm long, (1-)3-9(-15) mm wide, green or glaucous, glabrous or hairy, the hairs tubercle-based or not. Inflorescence 6-25 cm long; racemes solitary or 2-5(-9) subdigitately or racemosely arranged, each 6-15 (-20) cm long; internodes and pedicels clavate, mostly glabrous, sometimes sparsely to densely pubescent. Sessile spikelet narrowly ovate to lanceolate, pallid or green, sometimes purplish; callus with a central peg; lower glume 4.5-8.5 mm long, flat on the back, distinctly nerved, glabrous to densely hirsute, spinously ciliate along the margins, narrowly winged towards the top, obtuse and often emarginate at the tip; lower floret male. Pedicelled spikelet resembling the sessile but usually smaller, without a callus, about as long as the internode or shorter.

Fl. & Fr. Per.: June-August (-October).

Type: India, Royle 263(B).

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

Phacelurus speciosus is a highly polymorphic species without any clear boundaries between facies. In Kashmir and parts of N.W.F.P. the plants are generally tall and lush with broad, flat, green leaves and occasionally hairy spikelets whereas in Baluchistan (and parts of N.W.F.P.) they are mostly shorter with stiff, convolute, glaucous leaves and glabrous spikelets. In Afghanistan there appears to be a higher proportion of plants with hairy spikelets, the most extreme of which have been referred to var. afghanicus. Independently of other sources of variation the leaves may be glabrous or hairy on one or both sides, the hairs having tubercle-bases or not. Occasionally the leaves are expanded, but stiff and glaucous.