Tufted perennial without rhizomes; culms 16-60 cm high, erect or geniculately ascending, slender. Leaf-blades flat or loosely rolled, 4-15 cm long, 2-3 mm wide, densely and shortly pubescent on both sides. Spike lax, 7-10 cm long (excluding the awns), nodding; rhachis joints smooth or scabrid along the margins. Spikelets 5-7-flowered, 15-20 mm long (excluding the awns); glumes unequal, oblong-lanceolate, scabrid, acute, acuminate or shortly awned (up to 2 mm), the lower 3.5-5.5(-6) mm long, the upper 5-6.5 mm long; lemma oblong-lanceolate, 8-10 mm long (excluding the awn), scabrid on the back, produced at the tip into a stout, strongly curved awn 3-3.5 cm long; palea as long as the body of the lemma; anthers 2-2 5 mm long.

Fl. & Fr. Per.: July-August.

Type: USSR, Tadzhikistan, Tuturin 41 (LE).

Distribution: Pakistan (N.W.F.P., Gilgit & Kashmir); Central Asia.

3300-4200 m.