Tufted perennial; culms up to 1.5 m high. Leaf-blades flat, 20-60 cm long, 6-17 mm wide, scaberulous above, hairy on the nerves beneath, narrowed at the base into a false petiole 0.5-8 cm long. Panicle 15-30 cm long, very loose, the lowest branches up to 6 cm long. Spikelets 4.5-6 mm long, linear-lanceolate; lower glume brownish, emarginate, shortly hairy on the nerves, long-ciliate on the margins especially in the lower half, the central nerve slightly excurrent as a short awnpoint 0.5 mm long; upper glume similar but with a longer awn; lower lemma broadly, oblong, 2-lobed at the apex with the nerves running into a narrow tooth between the lobes; upper lemma deeply bifid with a geniculate awn 11-15 mm long in the sinus.

Type locality Japan.

Distribution: Kashmir; temperate Himalayas; Khasi and Naga Hills; China and Japan.

Spodiopogon cotulifer is usually found in swampy places.