Tufted perennial without rhizomes; culms 40-85 cm high, erect or geniculately ascending, ± slender. Leaf-blades flat, 10-20 cm long, 3-6 mm wide, sparsely hairy above, glabrous beneath. Spike lax, 10-17 cm long (excluding the awns), nodding; rhachis joints scabrid along the margins. Spikelets (4-)5-7-flowered, 20-25 mm long (excluding the awns); glumes subequal, oblong-elliptic, 45-8 mm long (excluding the awn), scabrid, narrowed above into an awn (25-) 4-10 mm long; lemma oblong-elliptic, 11-12.5 mm long (excluding the awn), scabrid or loosely villous on the back, sometimes hairy on the margins, produced at the tip into a stout, strongly curved awn 3-5 cm long; palea as long as the body of the lemma; anthers 2-25 mm long.

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

Type: Himalayas (?Pakistan), Duthie 140 (LE).

Distribution: Pakistan (N.W.F.P. & Kashmir); Central Asia and the Himalayas.

2300-4700 m.