Stems up to 75 cm high. Racemes digitate, often with additional whorls below, 1.5–10 cm long. Spikelets 6- to 25-flowered, 5.5–13 mm long; glumes unequal, the lower 1.2–3 mm long, acute and mucronate, the upper 1.5–3 mm long, acuminate and awned, the awn 1/3–2/3 the length of the body; lemmas narrowly ovate in profile, 2–2.8 mm long, the awn 0.3–0.9 mm long.
