Tufted perennial without rhizomes; culms 25-70 cm high, erect or geniculately ascending, slender. Leaf-blades flat or loosely rolled, 5-15 cm long, 2-2.5 mm wide, puberulous above, glabrous or puberulous beneath. Spike lax, 8-15(-17) cm long (excluding the awns), erect or nodding; rhachis joints scabrid along the margins. Spikelets 5-9-flowered, 18-26(-35) mm long (excluding the awns); glumes unequal, elliptic or oblong-lanceolate, acuminate or shortly awned (up to 2 mm), sometimes with a tooth on the margin, scabrid, the lower 4-8 mm long, the upper 5.5-9 mm long; lemma elliptic-oblong, 8-11 mm long (excluding the awn), minutely bristly or hairy on the back, sometimes only in the lower part, produced at the tip into a stout, strongly curved awn 3-6 cm long; palea as long as the body of the lemma; anthers (2.5-)3-3.5 mm long.

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

Type: USSR, Central Asia, Lipsky 2500 (LE).

Distribution: Pakistan (N.W.F.P., Gilgit & Kashmir); Central Asia from Iran to the Himalayas and Tibet.

Best distinguished by the length of its anther although it is traditionally recognised by its awn which is inflated at the base and grooved along its inner face. The awn character, however, is not as reliable as hitherto supposed.

3000-5000 m.