Plants perennial, glaucescent, rhizomatous. Rhizomes brown, lignose. Culms 40-80(100) cm, erect or strongly ascending, nodes 2, glabrous; internodes glabrous. Leaves:sheaths usually glabrous, occasionally scabridulous towards the top; auricles present; ligules 0.4-0.5 mm, truncate, glabrous or hairy on the margins; blades 20-40 cm, 3-5(7) mm wide, not exceeding the culms, usually glabrous, occasionally slightly pubescent. Panicles 7-17(20) cm long, 1-3 cm wide, erect; branches erect, scabrous. Spikelets 25-35 mm long, elliptic to narrowly lanceolate, terete to moderately laterally compressed, with 5-8(11) florets. Glumes more or less lanceolate, glabrous or minute stiff hairs on the veins; lower glume 6-9 mm long, 1(3)-veined; upper glumes 7-10 mm long, 3-veined. Lemmas 10-13 mm long, lanceolate, 7-veined, scabridulous, tip usually obtuse to rounded, occasionally acute; awn 2-5 mm long. Anthers 5-7 mm long. Habitat: from lower mountain belt to alpine regions. Geographic distribution: Caucasus: Central and Eastern Caucasu, Daghestan, Central, Eastern and Southwestern Transcaucasia (floristic divisions from Grossheim).