Perennial; culms 30-60 cm high, erect or sprawling. Leaf-blades linear to linear-lanceolate, 3-15 cm long, 4-8 mm wide, glabrous or minutely pubescent below, scaberulous above, with thickened margins. Panicle pyramidal, up to 17 cm long, loose and open, the branches obliquely spreading. Spikelets ellipsoid to subglobose, on long capillary glandular pedicels, 1.8-2.1 mm long, florets contiguous, the lower male, the upper bisexual; glumes broadly elliptic or obovate, as long as the spikelet, 7-nerved, scabrid or hirtellous in the upper half; lemmas broadly elliptic to subrotund, the lower a little longer than the upper, thinly coriaceous, glabrous.

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

Syntypes: Khasia, Hooker & Thomson; Punjab, Aitchison 250; Peshawar, Aitchison 522; Kumoan, Strachey & Winterbottom 2; Rajaori, Jacquemont 1296; India, Wallich 8656 D & E (all K).

Distribution: Pakistan (Punjab, N.W.F.P. & Kashmir); Himalayas from Sikkim to Afghanistan.

A plant of wet habitats, said to be enjoyed by horses and cattle.