Tufted perennial, culms 2–4 noded, erect, to 1 m high, smooth to minutely scabrous. Leaves slightly scabrous, glabrous to lightly pubescent; blade flat, to 15 cm long and 5 mm wide; ligule firmly membranous, 0.5–1.5 mm long. Inflorescence an ovoid to oblong panicle, 2–8 cm long (excluding awns), often interrupted, narrowly oblong prior to anthesis. Spikelets as for E. ovatus; glumes subequal, acute, 2.5–4 mm long, long-scabrous along the keels; lemma (including apical lobes 0.5–1 mm long) equal to or slightly exceeding glumes, callus hairs dense, c. 1 mm long; awn 7–16 mm long. Flowers Oct.–Dec.
GipP, EGL, EGU, HSF. Recorded in Victoria from only the Heyfield-Bairnsdale area, and in the vicinity of Mallacoota, but probably more widespread and likely to occur in other dryish lowland forest sites in the east.
Echinopogon caespitosus var. cunninghamii C.E.Hubb. is endemic to central New South Wales. It differs in the generally smaller inflorescences and spikelets and in the puberulous rather than scabrous glumes.
