Annual or short-lived perennial; culms slender, 15–70(–100) cm. long, scrambling, often decumbent and rooting at the lower nodes. Leaf-blades narrowly lanceolate, 3–11 cm. long, 3–10(–12) mm. wide, straight at the base, flat, membranous, glabrous to pilose, acute or acuminate. Panicle broadly ovate, 4–16(–22) cm. long, sparsely branched, the branches slender, spreading at maturity. Spikelets ovate, 2.5–3.5 mm. long, striate, pubescent, pale or dark olive-green, acuminate; lower glume as long as the spikelet, ovate, 5(–7)-nerved; upper glume ovate, 7-nerved, acute; lower lemma 5-nerved, sterile, its palea poorly developed; upper lemma pale, shining.
