Caespitose perennial; culms up to 25 cm high, filiform, erect or decumbent at the base. Leaf-blades linear-acute, involute, up to 6 cm long and 1 mm wide. Inflorescence a raceme or congested panicle 1-3 cm long. Spikelets crowded, 10-12 mm long, 2-3-flowered, wedge-shaped, laterally compressed; glumes subequal, lanceolate-acuminate, the lower 3-5-nerved, up to 10 mm long, the upper 5-nerved, up to 12 mm long; lowest lemma elliptic, 5-7-nerved, awned, up to 4.5 mm long, sparsely hairy on the back between the nerves and with dense tufts of hairs between the nerves at the base of the lobes, long-ciliate on the margins, the lobes 1 mm long, awned; awns of the lobes up to 5.5 mm long; central awn up to 15 mm long, anthers 1.25-1.5 mm long. Grain obovoid, flattened, 1.5 mm long.

Fl. & Fr. Per.: July-September

Type: Kashmir, Jacquemont 1041 (P).

Distribution: Gilgit & Kashmir; Northwest Himalayas and Hindu Kush.

A plant of dry rocky slopes, eaten by sheep and goats, but of no consequence as fodder.