Plants tough, densely caespitose, with short rhizome. Culm 10–40 (–60) cm high, erect, wiry, unbranched, ribbed; nodes 1(–2)-towards the base, pubescent; internodes glabrous, or minutely hairy or scabrous. Leaves mostly basal; leaf-sheath coriaceous, strongly ribbed, glabrous, glossy, pale greyish brown or creamy. Ligule 0.5–1(–2) mm long. Leaves blades greyish-green or green; leaf-blade 5–20 cm long, c. 0.5 mm diam., tightly involute, rigid, pungent, abaxially smooth, or with minute prickle-teeth or hairs beside ribs, adaxially minutely papillose on ribs. Spike 3–8 cm long, rachis concave-convex in T.S., smooth but margins finely scabrous, terminating into a fine scabrous bristle 2–10 mm long. Spikelets 5–10.5 mm long, green or usually purplish. Lower glume 0.3–0.6 mm long, ± triangular, sometimes short-ciliate wedge, the upper glume (when present) smaller. Lemma 5–7 mm long, narrow-lanceolate or lanceolate-oblong, lateral nerves and awn minutely scabrous, margins hyaline, infolded from the lateral nerves and enveloping the pale, the awn 1.6–3 mm long. Palea 4–6 mm long, linear to lorate, membranous, hyaline, apex rounded and very short-ciliate, 2-nerved. Anthers 3.5–4 mm long and fertile, or mostly 1–2 mm and pollenless. Caryopsis 3–4 mm long, 0.5 mm diam., narrow-fusiform, falling with the hardened palea and lemma. Flowers in Summer.
In Victoria, known from two recent (2023) collections from near Marengo Nature Conservation Reserve, where currently localised to two small populations growing at the edge of a slashed firebreak adjacent to dense heathland, with Acacia verticillata, Leptospermum continentale and Melaleuca squarrosa. Cope & Gray (2009) note that in the United Kingdom the species is a true calcifuge, and is absent from predominantly calcareous soils.
The flowers are protogynous, with a single minutely hairy stigma that protrudes from the apex of the floret before the anthers, as in other grasses lacking lodicules (Hubbard 1968).
Reported as being very unpalatable to stock (Linder 2009).
