Tufted perennial 30-100 cm high. Leaf-blades involute and setaceous, up to 3 mm wide when flattened, glabrous on the lower (outer) surface; ligule 0.7-0.9 mm long. Panicle loose and open, 15-25 cm long, the branches bare in the lower half to two-thirds. Glumes ± equal, 4.2-6.3 mm long, elliptic, acute or shortly acuminate, the lower 1-3-nerved, the upper 3-nerved; lemma narrowly elliptic, 2.9-4.2 mm long (including callus), pilose especially on the flanks and at the tip, very obscurely 2-toothed at the tip; callus blunt, 03 mm long. Awn weakly unigeniculate, articulated at the base, faintly spirally twisted below, 9.5-15 mm long, scaberulous throughout.

Fl. & Fr. Per.: June-September.

Type: USSR, Caspian region, Eichwald (LE).

Distribution: Pakistan (Baluchistan & N.W.F.P.); southern USSR (Caucasus to Pamir), Iran and Afghanistan.