Loosely tufted perennial; culms 25-45 cm high, simple, erect or geniculately ascending. Leaf-blades 3.5-10 cm long, 2-4 mm wide, flat, glabrous or sparsely hairy; ligule 1-2 mm long. Panicle oblong, 3-7 cm long, continuous or interrupted and ± lobed in the lower part. Spikelets 2-3-flowered, pallid and shining; glumes glabrous, acute, the lower narrowly lanceolate, 4.5-5 mm long, 1-nerved, the upper elliptic, 5-5.5 mm long, 3-nerved; lemmas elliptic, 4.5-5 mm long, faintly 5-7-nerved, glabrous, acute, shortly awned with an awn up to 1.2 mm long; anthers 0.6-1.2 mm long.

Type: Kashmir, Thomson (K).

Distribution: Pakistan (Baluchistan & Kashmir); Afghanistan.

A rather rare species said to differ from Koeleria macrantha by its silvery lower sheaths, a character seldom easy to see. It is better to rely on the awn.