annual; culms ascending from a geniculate or prostrate, often rooting, branched base, 1 to several ft. long, glabrous, few- to many-noded, upper node by far the longest; leaves glabrous or hairy; sheaths thin, herbaceous, loose, sometimes bearded at the nodes; ligules truncate, up to more than 1/2 lin. long; blades linear-lanceolate to linear, acute, 1–5 in. by 2–4 lin., flat, flaccid, margins scabrid; racemes few to many, subdigitate, solitary or 2–3-nate on a short angular scaberulous common axis, erect or spreading, rather stout for the genus, usually strict, 1–6 in. long, often finely villous at the base; rhachis triquetrous, lateral angles winged, scabrid, internodes over 1 lin. long, pedicels 2-nate, one very short, the other up to 3/4 lin. long, triquetrous, scabrid; spikelets oblong, acute, 1–1 1/4 lin. long, greenish or purplish; lower glume ovate, acute, about 1/6 lin. long; upper ovate-lanceolate, acute, equalling 1/2 or less of the upper valve, 3-nerved, with lines of extremely fine adpressed silky hairs between the nerves and along the margins, lower valve oblong acute, 7-nerved, the inner lateral nerves somewhat distant from the middle-nerve, very prominent, the outermost submarginal, faint lines of very fine adpressed silky hairs along the margins and often also between the lateral nerves; upper valve subchartaceous, oblong, subacuminate or acute, greenish or purplish, slightly shorter than the lower valve; anthers up to 1/2 lin. long. null
