Perennial, loosely tufted or culms solitary, rhizomatous. Culms erect, 15–50 cm tall, 3-noded. Leaf sheaths smooth, upper sheaths inflated; leaf blades 5–12 cm, 3–7 mm wide, abaxial surface smooth, adaxial surface scabrid; ligule 2–3 mm. Panicle ovoid to shortly and broadly cylindrical, densely hairy, 1.5–3 cm, gray-green or tinged light purple. Spikelets narrowly ovate-oblong, slightly urn-shaped, 4–6 mm; glumes submembranous, densely villous on keel, lateral veins and near margins, hairs soft, spreading, 2–3 mm, margins connate at base, apices sharply acuminate to mucronate, slightly divergent; lemma shorter than glumes, margins connate in lower 1/3–1/2, upper margins shortly pubescent, awned from lower 1/5–1/4, apex broadly acute; awn exserted 4–8 mm from spikelet, geniculate. Anthers yellow, 2–3 mm. Fl. Jun. 2n = 56.

Damp alpine grasslands, wet places on rocky slopes; 3000–4100 m. SW Xinjiang (Taxkorgan) [NE Afghanistan, Kashmir, Kyrgyzstan, N Pakistan, Tajikistan].