Tufted prennial without rhizomes: culms 15-25cm high, erect, slender. Leaf-blades folded -setaceous, up to 10cm long, smooth on the lower (outer) surface, somewhat glaucous, with 3 sclerenchyma strands, 1 on the keel and 1 along each margin, 7-nerved, the outermost pair of nerves as large as the innermost; ligule a narrow rim 0.3-0.5mm long. Panicle narrowly oblong, 3-5cm long, contracted, the branches ascending, ± appressed to the main axis, scabrid. Spikelets 3-6-flowered, 5.5-8.5mm long (excluding the awns), distinctively coloured brown; lower glume (1.8-) 2.4-3.2mm long, 1-nerved; upper glume 3-4.3mm long, 3-nerved; lemmas oblong-elliptic in side-view, 3.5-5mm long, scabrid towards the tip, with an awn 1-2mm long; palea-keels scabrid above, smooth below; anthers 0.75-1.5mm long; ovary glabrous.

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

Type: USSR, Tadzhikistan, Tzvelev 1008 (LE).

Distribution: Pakistan (N.W.F.P., Gilgit & Kashmir); Pamirs and the western Himalayas.

4200-4800m.