Tufted perennial without rhizomes; culms 5-30 cm high, erect or ascending, bulbous at the base. Leaf-blades folded, 1-10 cm long, 1-2 mm wide; ligule 1.5-3 mm long. Panicle contracted, spike-like, 2.5-4 cm long. Spikelets 1-2-flowered, 3-4 mm long, variegated with yellow and purple; glumes unequal, much shorter than the lemmas, the lower elliptic, 1-nerved, 1.1-1.7 mm tong, the upper ovate-elliptic, 1-3-nerved, 1.6-2.4 mm long; lemma 2.5-4 mm long, appressed hairy along the nerves and sometimes also between them at the extreme base, denticulately obtuse; anthers 1.5-3 mm long, brown or purple.

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

Type: India, Kumoan, Strachey & Winterbottom 2 (K).

Distribution: Kashmir; western Himalayas.

4300-4700 m.