Tufted perennial (10-)25-70 cm high. Leaf-blades involute and setaceous, stiff and pungent, up to 3.5 mm wide when flattened, glabrous and smooth on the lower (outer) surface; ligule shaggy, 05-0.7 mm long. Panicle narrow, contracted, 5-10(-17) cm long, partially enclosed by the inflated sheath of the uppermost leaf or between the inflated sheaths of the two uppermost leaves. Glumes subequal, lanceolate and long-acuminate, 25-50 mm long, 5-nerved; lemma terete, 9-13 mm long (including callus), hairy with long or short hairs in distinct rows and with a crown of short hairs at the tip; callus acuminate, pungent, 2-3 mm long. Awn unigeniculate, articulated at the base, (4.5-)8-13.5 cm long; column bearing hairs 1-3 mm long; bristle rigidly falcate, plumose with hairs 4-6 mm long.

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

Type: USSR, Caucasus, Lipsky (LE).

Distribution: Kashmir; Caucasus eastwards to Central Asia.

Collected several times in Kashmir at about 5000 m. It is the only species of Stipa (sensu str.) in our flora to have a unigeniculate awn with a rigidly falcate bristle.