Perennial; culms wiry, erect or ± geniculately ascending, up to 100 cm high. Leaf-blades flat or folded, 15-30 cm long, 1-4 mm wide, glaucous, narrowed at the base, attenuate to a filiform tip; basal sheaths persistent, thinly pubescent. False panicle 10-30 cm long, with few racemes, erect or nodding; spatheoles narrowly elliptic up to 3 cm long. Racemes 12-35 mm long (up to 22 mm long in Asia), lowest pedicel not swollen; internodes and pedicels ciliate along the margins, glabrous on the back. Sessile spikelet narrowly lanceolate, 4.5-7 mm long (up to 5.5 or 6 mm long in Asia); lower glume concave below the middle or sometimes ± flat; upper lemma deeply bifid, with an awn 10-20 mm long. Chromosome number, 2n=40.

Fl. & Fr. Per.: April (Punjab); July-August (N.W.F.P., Gilgit & Kashmir).

Type: Tanzania, Pospischil (B).

Distribution: Pakistan (Sind, Punjab, N.W.F.P., Gilgit & Kashmir); Nepal and the western Himalayas; eastern Africa from Ethiopia and Somalia to the Cape.

The longer racemes, seen in Africa, tend to be associated with a large but parallel-side, lowermost pedicel, and may indicate introgression from Cymbopogon commutatus