Perennial, loosely tufted. Culms 30–100 cm tall, 2–3-noded. Leaf sheaths glabrous, lower slightly longer than internodes; leaf blades filiform, convolute, basal blades up to 30 cm, culm blades 10–15 cm, outer surface scabrid; ligule of basal leaves rounded, 0.5–1 mm, of culm leaves lanceolate, 2–3 mm, decurrent and adnate to margins of leaf sheath. Panicle slightly spreading, 15–30 cm, exserted from uppermost leaf sheath at maturity. Spikelets gray-green becoming purple; glumes narrowly lanceolate, 1.2–1.5 cm, apex slenderly acuminate; callus pungent, ca. 2 mm; lemma 8–10 mm, densely hairy in a ventral longitudinal line, longitudinally pilose on back, hispidulous below apex, a ring of short hairs at awn articulation; awn deciduous, 4–6 cm, 2-geniculate, column 1.5–2.5 cm to first bend, setulose with ca. 0.3 mm spinules, ca. 1 cm to second bend, bristle scabrid, stiff, straight, 1.5–2.5 cm. Fl. and fr. May–Aug.

This is a forage grass of summer pasture in steppe and forest steppe regions.

* Grassy rocky hillsides, roadsides; 800–3600 m. Gansu, Hebei, Nei Mongol, Ningxia, Qinghai, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Sichuan, Xizang.