Tufted perennial. Leaves up to 20cm x 4.5mm; purple culms and leaf sheaths; base bulbous and covered in old persistent woolly sheaths. Inflorescence is a panicle 3-7mm long, globose or cylindrical; spikelets, including awns, up to 25mm x 15mm wide; lemma backs are densely pubescent from base to middle; central awn 6-16mm, geniculate.

Endemic to the western Cape