Tufted perennial with creeping rhizomes; culms 80-130 cm high, erect, stout, smooth or slightly rough beneath the panicle. Leaf-blades up to 55 cm long, (4-)8-20 mm wide, flat, scabrid above; ligule 1-3(-5) mm long, obtuse. Panicle nodding, ovate to lanceolate, 13-35 cm long, lax, pallid or faintly tinged with purple. Spikelets 5-8 mm long, the rhachilla sometimes shortly prolonged; glumes subequal or unequal, subulate-lanceolate, smooth or scaberulous only on the keel; lemma about half the length of the glumes, smooth, 2-toothed at the tip; awn 4-9 mm long, arising above the middle of the lemma and below the top third, usually projecting beyond the glume tips; callus hairs 2-3 times the length of the floret.

Fl. & Fr. Per.: July-September.

Type: India, Garhwal and Sikkim, J. D. Hooker (K).

Distribution: Pakistan (N.W.F.P. & Kashmir); Himalayas.

A very handsome grass with broad leaves and silvery panicle. 2400-4000 m.