Densely tufted perennial; culms 4-10cm high, erect, green or glaucous, clothed at the base with the scarious remains of old leaf-sheaths. Leaf-blades folded, 0.8-2cm long, 1-1.5mm wide, stiff, abruptly tapered to a stout tip, scabrid on the margins and both surfaces; ligule rounded, 1-3mm long. Panicle contracted, 0.5-2.5cm long; branches mostly in pairs, very short, erect, scabrid. Spikelets 2-5-flowered, elliptic-lanceolate, 4-6mm long, variegated with green and purple; glumes unequal, elliptic-lanceolate, 3-nerved, the lower 2.3-3mm long, the upper broader, 2.7-3.2mm long; lemmas elliptic-oblong in side-view, 3-3.5mm long, obtuse, ciliate on the keel and marginal nerves, densely hairy on the surface between the nerves below, with some wool present at the base of the lower lemmas; palea shorter than the lemma, the keels ciliate below, scabrid above; anthers 1-1.5mm long.

Fl. Per.: July.

Type: Kashmir, Koelz 2385(K).

Distribution: Kashmir, endemic.

Collected only three times, all by Walter Koelz in Kashmir, from between 5000 and 5700m.