Tufted perennial; culms 30-80 (-100) cm high, ascending from a prostrate base, rooting at the lower nodes. Leaf-blades flat or folded, 5-30 cm long, 3-14 mm wide, acuminate, dark- to bluish-green; ligule 2-8 mm long. Panicle broadly oblong, 10-40 cm long, loose, the branches suberect at first, finally widely spreading. Spikelets linear-oblong, 10-25 mm long, 7-16-flowered, greyish-green or purplish; glumes ovate, very obtuse, the lower 1.5-2.3 mm long, the upper 2.5-4 mm long; lemma 3.5-45 mm long, broadly elliptical, very obtuse, usually slightly crenulate at the tip, with 7 equally prominent, scabridulous nerves; palea keels winged above.