The World Flora Online

Densely tufted perennial; culms 6–50 cm. high, erect. Spikelets lanceolate, 3–4.5 mm. long, purple; glumes persistent, lanceolate, 3-nerved, asperulous, acute; lemma ovate-oblong, 2.5–3 mm. long, finely pubescent, 5-nerved, 4-denticulate with the outer nerves excurrent into brief mucros, awned from near the base; awn geniculate, ± 3 mm. long; palea as long as the lemma; rhachilla-extension 0.2 mm. long, obscure. Leaf-blades involute, filiform, up to 15 cm. long, stiff, densely scaberulous, without striations on the underside (due to a continuous layer of sclerenchyma beneath the epidermis). Panicle linear, contracted, 3–15 cm. long, dense, the branches scaberulous. Spikelets lanceolate, 3–4.5 mm. long, purple; glumes persistent, lanceolate, 3-nerved, asperulous, acute; lemma ovate-oblong, 2.5–3 mm. long, finely pubescent, 5-nerved, 4-denticulate with the outer nerves excurrent into brief mucros, awned from near the base; awn geniculate, ± 3 mm. long; palea as long as the lemma; rhachilla-extension 0.2 mm. long, obscure. Leaf-blades involute, filiform, up to 15 cm. long, stiff, densely scaberulous, without striations on the underside (due to a continuous layer of sclerenchyma beneath the epidermis). Panicle linear, contracted, 3–15 cm. long, dense, the branches scaberulous.