annual; culms fascicled, erect or suberect, slender to stout, 1–2 ft. long, glabrous, smooth, 2–3-noded, uppermost internodes long exserted; lower sheaths thin, pallid, finely tomentose to spreadingly villous, upper green, prominently striate, glabrescent or glabrous and smooth; ligules ovate, obtuse, 1–2 lin. long; blades linear, tapering to an acute point, 3–8 in. by 1–4 lin., flat, more or less flaccid, scaberulous or scabrid on both sides and along the margins, glabrous or softly hairy to villous; panicle narrow, usually nodding, scantily divided or reduced to a raceme, from a few inches to almost 1 ft. long; axis terete, striate, smooth below, angular and scaberulous above; lower branches remote, 2–3-nate, 2–4- (rarely 5-) spiculate, or all 1-spiculate, filiform, angular, scabrid, longest to 2–3 in. long; pedicels very unequal, lateral usually extremely short; spikelets erect or suberect, 8–15 lin. long, lanceolate-oblong to oblong, strongly compressed, light green to glaucous, 4–10-flowered; rhachilla very fragile; joints stout, up to 1 1/4 lin. long, scaberulous on the outer side; florets permanently closed, cleistogamous; glumes lanceolate, acute or acuminate, firm except at the narrow white hyaline margins, glabrous, smooth except on the scaberulous keels, lower 4 1/2–6 1/2 lin. long, 5–7-nerved, upper 5 1/2–8 lin. long, 7–9-nerved, nerves prominent; valves lanceolate in profile, usually very minutely 2-toothed, mucronate or shortly awned, 6–8 lin. long, acutely keeled, herbaceous-chartaceous, green, whitish below, scabrid, about 13-nerved, margins straight to 1/3 their length from the base, then hyaline, white, nerves prominent; pales 3–5 1/2 lin. long, folded between the crested rigidly ciliolate keels; filaments short, extremely delicate, clavate-tipped; anthers ellipsoid, usually about 1/4 lin. long, permanently enclosed in the floret; ovary top with a large 3-lobed villous appendage; stigmas sessile, short, slender, loosely plumose; grain strongly compressed, linear-oblong, deeply grooved in front, tightly adhering to the valve and pale. null
