annual; culms ascending from a geniculate base, scantily branched below, 1–2 ft. long, glabrous, 5- or more noded, upper node by far the longest; leaves glabrous or hairy; sheaths rather thin, striate; ligules rounded, 1 1/2–2 lin. long; blades linear from a subcordate base, tapering to a fine point, 3–5 in. by 1 1/2–2 1/2 lin., flat, flaccid, margins scabrid; racemes 3–10, subdigitate or on a scabrid angular common axis (1–2 in. long), singly or the lower subverticillate, erect or spreading, very slender, strict, 4–8 in. long; rhachis filiform, angular, very scabrid, internodes up to 2 lin. long; pedicels 2-nate, one very short, the other up to 1 lin. long, fine, angular, scabrid; spikelets lanceolate, about 1 1/2 lin. long; lower glume very minute, rounded hyaline, upper linear-lanceolate, long acuminate, exceeding the lower valve by 1/3, strongly 7-nerved, finely and adpressedly silky between the outer nerves and along the margins; lower valve oblong, shortly acuminate, rather over 1 lin. long, strongly 7-nerved, finely and adpressedly silky between the outer nerves and along the margins, upper subchartaceous, slightly shorter than the lower, pale; anthers 3/8 lin. long; grain 1/2 lin. long. null
