Tussock-forming perennial; basal sheaths glabrous or thinly pubescent; culms 30-120 cm high. Leaf-blades 10-30 cm long, 2-5 mm wide, often slender and flexuous. Inflorescence composed of 2-16 subdigitate racemes each 5-15 cm long, these light brown with white hairs from internodes and pedicels. Spikelets narrowly elliptic-oblong, 2.5-4 mm long; lower glume light brown, pilose with white hairs, with a subacute hyaline tip; lower lemma well-developed; upper lemma bifid to about the middle, with an awn 7-15 mm long.

Type: India, Icon at K.

Distribution: Pakistan (N.W.F.P. & Kashmir); Nepal and China to India, Burma and Ceylon; Malaysia; Australia.

Requires confirmation in Kashmir.