Perennial, forming spreading tuft; old basal sheaths pubescent. Culms sometimes geniculate, 20–60 cm tall, 1–3-noded. Basal leaves 1/4–1/3 length of culms; leaf sheaths shorter than internodes; leaf blades acicular, convolute, 7–15 cm, outer surface glabrous; ligule of basal leaves 0.5–1.5 mm, rounded, ciliate, of culm leaves up to 2 mm. Panicle loosely contracted, 10–25 cm, base enclosed by uppermost leaf sheath. Spikelets pale gray-green or light brown with silvery tips; glumes narrowly lanceolate, lower often slightly longer, 1.2–2 cm, apex scarious, acuminate into fragile filiform extension; callus pungent, 1.2–1.5 mm; lemma 0.6–0.8 cm, pilose along veins in lower half, minutely asperulous above, scabrid-spinulose below apex, a ring of short stiff hairs at awn articulation; awn 5.5–8 cm, deciduous, hairy throughout, 2-geniculate, column 1–1.6 cm to first bend, 0.7–1 cm to second bend, hairs 0.8–1 mm, bristle 3–6 cm, hairs 1–1.5 mm. Fl. May–Jul.

This species is easily recognized by its shortly plumose awn, spinulose lemma apex, and hairy basal sheaths. The long filiform glume tips are readily broken off, so that the spikelets appear to be much shorter. This is a spring forage grass in desert steppe regions.

Gravel and rocky slopes; 700–4700 m. Gansu, Hebei, Nei Mongol, Ningxia, Qinghai, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Sichuan, Xinjiang, Xizang [Kashmir, Kazakhstan (Tian Shan), Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Nepal, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan].