Rhizomatous perennial, producing slender, sometimes aggregated tussocks, culms ascending to erect, strongly compressed in the upper part, to 1 m high. Leaves glabrous; sheath tubular in lower part, brown, papery and often puckered near base; blade flat, rather thin, to 30 cm long and 4 mm wide, usually somewhat scabrous, evenly tapered to a narrowly acute apex; ligule thinly membranous, obtuse, 1–5 mm long. Inflorescence a narrow, oblong panicle, the branches tardily diverging, mostly to c. 20 cm long and 8 cm wide. Spikelets mostly 5–8-flowered, 5–11 mm long; glumes subequal, 3(–5)-nerved, 2–4 mm long, smooth along keel; lemma 5-nerved, 2.5–5 mm long, hairy on the back in the lower half, with longer, denser hairs on the keel and margins, occasionally the internerves glabrous; web not or weakly developed. Flowers Sep.–Dec.
LoM, MuM, Wim, VRiv, MSB, RobP, MuF, GipP, NIS. Also SA, Qld, NSW. Occasional on heavier soils prone to inundation in the north-west of the State, mostly along the lower Murray floodplain, extending as far east as the Yarrawonga area and south to near Horsham.
