Perennial, compactly tufted from a tough rootstock. Culms erect, slender, unbranched, 30–60 cm tall, glabrous. Leaves crowded at base of culm, overlapping; leaf sheaths keeled, glabrous except margins near blade; leaf blades flat or folded, 3–10 × 0.2–0.3 cm, glabrous except for basal margins, abruptly narrowed to subacute apex; ligule ca. 1 mm. Raceme gently curved, 3–6 cm; rachis internodes oblong-clavate, glabrous, 2.2–2.6 mm; nodes obviously hairy, hairs ca. 0.2 mm. Sessile spikelet 4–4.6 mm; lower glume ovate-oblong, papery, shiny, glabrous, 6–7-veined, marginal spines shorter than glume width, longest 1–1.5 mm, apex acute, flanked by narrow wings. Pedicelled spikelet vestigial; pedicel narrowly leaflike, tipped by a short spine.

Eremochloa ophiuroides (Munro) Hackel var. longispicula W. C. Wu (S. W. China J. Agric. Sci. 6(2): 36. 1985), described from Guangdong (Guangzhou), may belong here. The type has not been seen.

Grassy hill slopes, thickets; 1000–1800 m. W Guizhou, Hubei, Sichuan, Yunnan [Cambodia, Myanmar, New Guinea, Thailand, Vietnam; Australia].