Tufted glaucous perennial; culms 10-25cm high, erect. Leaf-blades flat or involute, 2-4cm long, 1-1.5 mm wide, stiff, shortly tapering to a blunt tip, scab-rid on the margins, scaberulous on both surfaces; ligule blunt or acute, becoming lacerate, 2.5-3 mm long. Panicle narrow, 2-4 cm long, contracted; branches paired, ascending, very scabrid. Spikelets 2-3-flowered, becoming wedge-shaped, 3-4 (-5) mm long, suffused with purple; glumes elliptic, 3-nerved, the lower 2.5-3 mm long, the upper broader, 3-3.5 mm long; lemmas oblong in side-view, 3.5-4 mm long, obtuse, ciliate on the keel and marginal nerves, with sparse wool at the base; palea shorter than the lemma, coarsely scabrid along the keels; anthers 1.5-2 mm long.

Fl. Per.: June-July.

Type: USSR, Tadzhikistan, Drobov 354(LE).

Distribution: Pakistan (N.W.F.P. & Kashmir); high mountains of Central Asia in USSR and Tibet.

4500-4700m.