Tufted perennial without rhizomes; culms (10-) 25-50cm high, erect. Leaf-blades folded or setaceous-involute, 1.5-10cm long, 1-3mm wide, scabrid on the margins; ligule blunt, 1.5-2.5mm long. Panicle oblong, 2.5-9 cm long, contracted; branches solitary or paired, short, ascending, scabrid. Spikelets 2-4-flowered, ovate-elliptic, becoming somewhat wedge-shaped, 4-5.5mm long, often tinged with purple; glumes unequal, 3-nerved, ovate, the lower 2.3-3.3 mm long, the upper broader, (2.5-)3-3.5 mm long; lemmas oblong in side-view, (2-)2.3-3(-3.2)mm long, acute or subacute, ciliate on the keel and marginal nerves, without any wool at the base; palea almost as long as to slightly longer than the lemma, scabrid along the keels; anthers 1-1.8 mm long.

Fl. Per.: July

Type: Altai, Bunge (LE).

Distribution: Pakistan (N.W.F.P., Gilgit & Kashmir); Siberia, Mongolia and Central Asia.

3300-5500 m.