Densely tufted perennial; culms 10-50(-70) cm high. Leaf-blades flat or rolled, 5-30 cm long, 1.5-4.5 mm wide, minutely pilose or rarely almost glabrous on the upper surface, smooth or scaberulous beneath. Panicle lax or contracted, (3-) 7-30 cm long, the branches spreading at first, finally erect, the longest less than half the length of the panicle. Spikelets lanceolate, 4-8 mm long; lemma narrowly ovate or elliptic, 2.6-4.2 mm long, loosely covered on the back, but not at the tip, with hairs 0.2-0.3 mm long, the apex usually beaklike and the tip bilobed, the lobes rounded and each bearing a dense tuft of stiff hairs; awn 1.8-4 mm long, included or slightly exserted from the glumes, subterminal, usually with a sharp bend immediately above the horizontally inserted base, deciduous; anthers 1.5-2.75 mm long, their tips glabrous or with a few short hairs but never distinctly bearded.

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

Type: USSR, Central Asia (TAK).

Distribution: Pakistan (Baluchistan, Punjab, N.W.F.P., Gilgit & Kashmir); eastern Afghanistan and the western Pamirs.

A widespread but uncommon species in moist upland forests between 1300 and 3500 m.