An upright tussock with bluish grey leaves to about 30 cm. The flowerheads emerge above the foliage to approximatley 50cm in summer. It can resemble its close relative , Red-leg Grass Bothriochloa macra but differs in that red-leg grass has green foliage with reddish nodes and dark coloured seed-heads. This is a summer growing grass with the 'C4' photosynthetic pathway. Like other grasses with this physiology (e.g.Themeda triandra, Bothriochloa macra, Hemarthria uncinata) growth tends to be vigorous in summer and the plants tend to be fairly drought-tolerant.