glabrate or scarcely hairy, annual, tufted; stem 1/2–4 in. long, slender, glabrous, carrying 1 (rarely 1–2) spikelets; leaves often overtopping the stems, setaceous, glabrous, or obscurely ciliate at the base, sometimes microscopically scabrous-hairy; spikelets 1/4 by 1/2 in., of 3–6 fertile flowers, pale, with a browner lanceolate tip of male glumes; basal spikelets above ground but concealed among the tufted stems are often added; bracts shorter or considerably longer than the spikelet, similar to the leaves; glumes elliptic, with a green 3-nerved keel excurrent in a curved mucro; stamens 3–2; nut 2/5 the length of the glume, subsessile, obovoid, dorsally compressed, pale; external layer of cells, nearly square, obscure, small, so that the nut appears smooth, microscopically reticulated, without longitudinal ribs; style as long as the nut, linear, smooth, with 2 linear branches, falling off early, leaving a minute discoloured button or small tubercle on the pale nut. null
