Wagner, Warren L., Derral R. Herbst and S. H. Sohmer. 1999. Manual of the Flowering Plants of Hawai'i (Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum Special Publication, 2 Vol. Set). Honolulu, HI

Flora of Hawaii:  

Distribution    
In the Hawaiian Islands, endemic to O`ahu, Moloka`i, Lana`i, Maui, Hawai`i.

Habit
Perennials in loose tufts, with hard, scaly rhizomes up to 7 cm long; culms erect, stiff, 10-15 dm tall, glabrous, slightly scabrous below panicles.

Leaves
Sheaths glabrous, pilose at throat and along the margins, especially in the sterile shoots; ligule a pilose ridge, the hairs ca. 5 mm long, also with silky hairs 4-6 mm long; blades 30-40 cm long, 4-6 mm wide, upper surface scabrous, lower surface glabrous, apex long-acuminate. 

Flowers
Inflorescences paniculate, erect, contracted but scarcely spike-like, 25-50 cm long, 2-4 cm wide, the branches several per node, 0-10 cm long, appressed, the nodes pilose; spikelets linear, many-flowered, up to 2.5 cm long, rachilla glabrous; glumes slightly unequal, narrowly ovate, 3-4 mm long, scabrous on keel, apex acuminate; lemmas pale green or purplish green, closely imbricate, 2-3 mm long, glabrous except minutely scaberulous at apex, the apex obtuse to erose; palea persistent, 2-3 mm long, upper portion of keels ciliate, apex obtuse and usually erose. 

Fruit
Caryopsis dark red, narrowly ovoid to fusiform, 0.7-1 mm long.