Plants perennial; cespitose, not rhizomatous. Culms 40–100 cm, glabrous or pubescent below the panicles. Sheaths longer than the internodes, smooth, mostly glabrous, margins sometimes ciliate; ligules 0.5–2 mm on the innovations, to 9 mm on the cauline leaves, stiffly membranous, pubescent, entire to erose; blades 2–5 mm wide when flat, 0.3–0.9(1.5) mm in diameter if involute, abaxial surfaces glabrous, smooth or scabrous, adaxial surfaces glabrous, scabrous, or hirsute, hairs to 0.6 mm. Panicles 10–15 cm, contracted, usually partially enclosed in the upper sheath; branches appressed to ascending, with 1–4 spikelets. Glumes 60–80(90) mm, long-attenuate, mostly hyaline; florets (18)20–27 mm; calluses 3–6 mm; lemmas with lines of hair over the veins and marginal veins, lines over the marginal veins longest, extending to the lemma apices; awns (250)300–500 mm, twice-geniculate, first 2 segments glabrous or hairy, hairs to 2 mm, terminal segment plumose, hairs 5–6 mm, spreading; paleassubequal to the lemmas, usually hairy on the keels, apices scarious; anthers 5–10 mm, not penicillate, yellowish or purplish; styles 2. Caryopses 10–18 mm. 2n = 44.
Stipa pulcherrima is native from France and Germany to Armenia, Azerbaijan, Turkey, and Iran. Freitag (1985) regarded it as a subspecies of S. pennata L. Its long, plumose awns make it a striking ornamental.