Tufted perennial without rhizomes; culms 35-100 cm high, erect, stout. Leaf-blades flat, 10-22 cm long, 4.5-6 mm wide, sparsely long-hairy above, glabrous beneath. Spike dense, 12-17 cm long (excluding the awns), erect; rhachis joints shortly ciliate along the margins. Spikelets 3-5-flowered, 12-17 mm long (excluding the awns); glumes subequal, oblong-elliptic, 8-11 mm long, firm with prominent scabrid nerves, the tip abruptly contracted into an awn or awn-like cusp 2-4.5 mm long; lemma oblong-lanceolate, 8-9.5 mm long (excluding the awn), long-hairy on the margins towards the tip, blunt or shortly 2-toothed and with a straight scabrid awn 12-20 mm long; palea as long as the body of the lemma or almost so; anthers 4-5.5 mm long.

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

Type: Pakistan, A. Rahman Beg 229 (BM, K).

Distribution: Pakistan (N.W.F.P.), endemic.

1800-3000 m.