Rytidosperma alpicola

Compact, tufted perennial. Culms to 30 cm high. Leaves smooth, glabrous, very rigid; sheath commonly purplish; blade thick, closely folded to inrolled, almost pungent, to 12 cm long and 4 mm wide. Panicle dense, ovate to ovate-lanceolate, 2–5 cm long. Spikelets strongly purplish initially, mostly 4–6-flowered; glumes subequal, acute, 10–17 mm long; lemma narrow, 2.5–4 mm long, with 2 rows of hairs, the lower just above the callus hair-tuft, sometimes with a few short hairs between the rows; lateral lobes erect, 5–10 mm long, setiform for about half the total; central awn 10–18 mm long; palea narrow-lanceolate, reaching or almost reaching the setiform part of lateral lobes. Flowers Dec.–Feb.