Plants rhizomatous or tufted. Leaves smooth to minutely scabrous or scabrous-pubescent; sheath minutely pubescent to glabrous; blade with the lower surface usually short-pubescent, rarely quite glabrous, the inner surface very sparsely to moderately pubescent with fine hairs to c. 0.5 mm long. Inflorescence frequently somewhat contracted, mostly to c. 12 cm long and 6 cm wide. Spikelets 2–6-flowered, 4–8 mm long, commonly purplish; glumes 3-nerved, 2–3 mm long, the upper slightly longer than lower; lemma 2.5–4 mm long. Flowers Dec.–Feb.
NIS, EGU, HSF, HNF, HFE, VAlp. Endemic in Victoria. Locally common to dominant in alpine and subalpine shrublands, Eucalyptus pauciflora woodland, and E. delegatensis open-forests, particularly in sheltered, rocky areas above c. 1200 m. Apparently absent from the Baw Baws.
Plants in exposed, high-altitude sites may be barely rhizomatous and have leaves which are smooth and quite glabrous on the outer surface.
Source:
Walsh, N.G. (1994). Poaceae. In: Walsh, N.G.; Entwisle, T.J., Flora of Victoria Vol. 2, Ferns and Allied Plants, Conifers and Monocotyledons, pp. 356–627. Inkata Press, Melbourne.
