A large and long-lived grass (1-2.5 m tall) usually forming dense tufts. Its leaf blades (10-50 cm long and 3-15 mm wide) are narrowed at the base and mostly hairless. Its seed-heads usually have 6-20 branches ranging from 5-15 cm long. Its flower spikelets are arranged in pairs along the seed-head branches so that they appear to have four rows of seeds. These flower spikelets (2-3 mm long) are fringed with long silky hairs.