Plants tufter perenial up to 150 cm tall. Leaves with attenuate baes. Inflorescences linear to narrowly oblong, 5-35 cmlong; rames 15-30 mm long, ciliate with hairs up to 2 mm long; lowermost pedicels swollen, free from the adjacent internode which may also be swolledn. Sessile spikelets narrowly lanceolate, 4-7 mm long; lower glumes chartaceous, glabrous or pubescent, with 0-3 veins between the keels distally, shallowly to deeply concave between the keels, these rounded on the lower 1/2 and often separated by a gibbous swelling at the base; upper lemmas awned; awns 10-20 mm long, geniculate and with a distinct column; pedicellate spikelets narrowly lanceolate, 4.5-7 mm long.
Cymbopogon cmmutatus grows in grassy plains on limestone and gypsumhills, in deciduous bushland, and degraded juniper forests at 200-1590 m. It is known from regions N1-3 and C1 of the Flora of Somalia as well as from tropical Africa eastwards through Arabia to Iraq and India.