Perennial, densely tufted. Culms 20–60 cm tall, 2–5-noded. Basal leaf sheaths pubescent, slightly swollen, enclosing cleistogamous spikelets, culm sheaths glabrous or margin ciliate; leaf blades acicular, convolute, basal blades up to 17 cm, culm blades 3–15 cm; ligule of basal leaves rounded, 0.2–0.5 mm, ciliate, of culm leaves lanceolate, 3–5 mm, apex denticulate. Panicle 12–20 cm, base enclosed by uppermost leaf sheath, gradually exserted after maturity. Spikelets gray-green or purple; glumes narrowly lanceolate, 0.9–1.5 cm, apex extended into a slender awn-tipped cusp; callus pungent, 1–1.3 mm; lemma 5–6 mm, pilose in longitudinal lines, awn articulation with a ring of short hairs; awn deciduous, 4–7 cm, scabrid, 2-geniculate, column 1–1.5 cm to first bend, 0.5–1 cm to second bend, bristle 3–5 cm. Cleistogamous spikelets laterally compressed, awnless or shortly awned. Caryopses regularly produced in cleistogamous spikelets. Fl. and fr. May–Oct.

This is a good forage grass for summer pasture, becoming green early in the season.

Rocky slopes, loess hills, river banks, roadsides; 500–4000 m. Anhui, Gansu, Hebei, Henan, Jiangsu, Nei Mongol, Ningxia, Qinghai, Shaanxi, Shandong, Sichuan, Xinjiang, Xizang [Kazakhstan (Tian Shan), Kyrgyzstan (Tian Shan), Mongolia].