Plant tussock forming; shoots intravaginal. Culms robust, 30–100 cm tall, nodes 1–2(–5). Leaf sheaths usually smooth, occasionally scabrid at base; auricles falcate, ciliolate; leaf blades flat, tough, 4–35 cm × 1.5–7 mm, margins scabrid, veins 18, tapering to a fine point; adaxial to abaxial sclerenchyma strands present, abaxial sclerenchyma in narrow discrete strands; ligule 0.5–1 mm, truncate. Panicle loose or contracted, 5–25 cm, many-spiculate; branches 2–10 cm, 1–2 at lower nodes. Spikelets 8–15 mm; florets (2–)3–7; glumes glabrous; lower glume narrowly lanceolate, 3–6 mm; upper glume lanceolate, 4.5–7 mm; rachilla internodes 1.2–1.5 mm; lemmas 6–9 mm, firm except for narrow scarious scabrid margins, apex notched; awns 0.3–0.8(–5) mm; palea keels scaberulous. Anthers 2.7–3.7 mm. Ovary apex glabrous. Fl. and fr. Jun–Sep.

This species is a native of C and N Asia and Europe, widely introduced as a pasture grass and naturalized in other temperate countries. The ciliate auricles are characteristic, but the hairs become worn off with age.

The earlier name Festuca elatior Linnaeus (1753) has been formally rejected.

Valleys, under shrubs, along forest margins; 700–1200 m. Xinjiang; cultivated and adventive in Gansu, Hubei, Jiangxi, Nei Mongol, Qinghai, Shaanxi, Sichuan, Taiwan, Yunnan, Zhejiang, NE China [Russia; Europe, North America].