Tussocky perennial, the tufts frequently connected by woody stolons; culms up to 60 cm high. Leaf-blades glaucous, narrowly linear-acuminate, involute, rarely flat, up to 25 cm long and 2-3 mm wide, stiff, pungent, spinulose ciliate on the margins near the base. Panicle elliptical or pyramidal, up to 20 cm long, the lower branches verticillate, bare at the base, up to 6 cm long. Spikelets 1.5-2.5 mm long, smooth or scaberulous, densely clustered at the ends of the branches; lower glume 0.5-0.8 mm long, obtuse or truncate; upper glume 1.4-2.4 mm long, almost as long as the lemma, lanceolate-elliptic, acute; lemma similar to the upper glume, as long as the spikelet; anthers 3, 1.2-1.5 mm long. Grain ellipsoid, 0.8-1.2 mm long.

Fl. & Fr. Per.: March - October.

Type: Arabia, Aucher-Eloy 5425.

Distribution: Pakistan (Sind, Baluchistan, Punjab & N.W.F.P.); Arabia, Iran and India.

A harsh, tussocky desert grass distinguished from Sporobolus ioclados and Sporobolus kentrophyllus by its stiff, pungent, inrolled glaucous leaves.