Tufted perennial, 20-30 cm. Rhizome creeping. Stem 1-2 mm diam., not easily compressed, clearly grooved with 10-12 strong veins on one side, c. 23 vascular bundles in cross section, grey or yellow green, often clearly papillose. Open sheaths grey or reddish; lower closed sheath up to 25 mm, yellowish or mostly reddish brown, scarious, mouth oblique, wide; upper up to 65 mm, yellow or pale brown, lowest part reddish, mouth oblique. Spike 10-20 x 2-3 mm, narrowly ellipsoid to ovoid with acutish apex, with more than 50, loosely imbricating glumes; two basal glumes sterile, 1.5-3 mm, rather unequal, widely clasping, strong, apex rounded, margins widely scarious; glumes 3-3.5 x c. 1.2 mm, ovate, cymbiform, acute or subacute, mid-nerve not reaching apex, sides brown to pale brown, margins widely scarious. Perianth bristles 0-4, weak, unevenly developed, sometimes rudimentary, to equalling nut, pale brown; stamens 3, anthers c. 1.5 mm; stigmas 2. Nut 1.2-1.4 x 0.9-1.1 mm (without stylopodium), ovoid, thickly bi-convex, yellow brown, glossy, obscurely reticulate; stylopodium 0.4-0-5 x 0.7-0.8 mm, wider than long, mammiform, white or yellowish, trabeculate or reticulate, deeply constricted from nut.

Fl. Per.: April - August.

Type: "Bassein Syr-Dary, 14.7.1842" A. Lehmann (LE!). According to Kukkonen (in Rech.f., Fl. Iran. 173: 57. 1998) ‘a specimen from Pakistan: Baluchistan, “Isplingi Tangi” (location unknown) collected by Khan s.n. might belong here but as the specimen is immature the determination is tentaive’.

"In salsis". 500 - 1100 m; Distribution: From NE Caucasus and Iran to Tadjikistan, E Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Description based primarily on specimen from Turkmenistan. Farab, 1898 by Litwinow, cited by Meinshausen (1900) and Kreczetovicz (1932). E. argyrolepis is morphologically close to E. palustris subsp. palustris being mostly of the same size, however, its stem is strongly nerved, often distinctly papillose, glume margins are mostly widely scarious, and stylopodium is wider than long. As the only known specimen is immature the presence of the species in Pakistan is tentative.