Tufted annual; culms 10-45(-70) cm high, erect or geniculately ascending, slender, smooth. Leaf-blades flat, 3-15 cm long, 1.5-5 mm wide, smooth or faintly scaberulous; ligule 2.5-4 mm long, obtuse. Panicle broadly lanceolate to narrowly oblong, 3-15(-20) cm long, narrow and dense to very effuse, usually tinged with purple; inflated tip of pedicel smooth. Spikelets 1.5-2.5 mm long, breaking up at maturity above the persistent glumes; glumes acute, awnless, rough on the keel; lemma hairy, 1.2-2 mm long, blunt, awnless or with a fine straight awn up to 3 mm long arising at or below the middle; palea almost as long as the lemma; callus bearded with hairs about a third the length of the floret; anthers 0.4-0.8(-1.2) mm long.

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

Type: Afghanistan, Aitchison 1252 (K).

Distribution: Pakistan (N.W.F.P. & Kashmir); western Himalayas.

1200-4300 m.