Tufted greyish-green perennial; culms up to 100 cm high, erect or geniculately ascending. Leaf-blades flat or rolled, up to 15 cm long, 2-8 mm wide, glabrous or scaberulous. Spike 4-8(-11) cm long (excluding the awns); rhachis very fragile, shortly ciliate along the margins. Spikelets 2-flowered; glumes 8-10 mm long, shortly scabrid-ciliate on the keel, acuminate or shortly awned; lemmas 8-13 mm long, with an awn 0.2-2.5 cm long.

Type locality: Sicily.

Distribution: ? Pakistan (N.W.F.P.); southern Europe, North Africa, the Caucasus and the Middle East.

There is a single specimen at Kew from N.W.F.P. (Harriss 16829) labelled as Secale montanum but since it consists only of the spike its identity cannot be confirmed. The species differs from the others in our area only by its perennial habit.