Tufted perennial without rhizomes; culms 3-30cm high, erect, slender. Leaf-blades folded-setaceous, up to 13cm long, smooth on the lower (outer) surface, glaucous, with 3 sclerenchyma strands, 1 on the keel and 1 along each margin, 5-nerved, rarely 7-nerved, but then the additional nerves (the outermost pair) much smaller than the innermost pair; ligule a narrow rim 0.4-0.6mm long. Panicle narrowly oblong, 1-5cm long, the branches ascending, ± appressed to the main axis, scabrid. Spikelets 3-4-flowered, 5-6mm long (excluding the awns); lower glume 1.8-2.2mm long, 1-nerved; upper glume 2.6-3.2mm long, 3-nerved; lemmas oblong-elliptic in side-view, 3.2-4mm long, scabrid towards the tip, with an awn 1-2mm long; palea-keels scabrid or sometimes smooth below; anthers 1-1.2mm long; ovary glabrous.

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

Type: Tian-Shan, Brocherel 395 (G).

Distribution: Pakistan (N.W.F.P., Gilgit & Kashmir); southern USSR (Central Asia).

3000-4500m.