Annual, up to over 1 ft. high, in small tufts. Culms geniculately ascending or sometimes with a decumbent base, with flowering branches up to the middle, about 4-noded, internodes exserted or laid bare by the slipping off of the sheaths, glabrous. Leaf-sheaths terete, rather loose except the uppermost, quite smooth or ciliate upwards; ligules very short, hyaline, ciliate; blades linear from a slightly rounded base, tapering to a slender point, 2–2 1/2 in. by 2–2 1/2 lin., flat, spreading or deflexed, thin, soft, drying yellowish, glabrous or minutely and scantily hairy, midrib very slender, lateral nerves faint, margins minutely scaberulous, sometimes slightly crisp. Panicles terminal and lateral, the terminal long (up to 3 or 4 in.), exserted, broadly rhomboid or ovate in outline, up to 3 in. by 2 1/2 in., very loose, divided to the third degree; common axis terete or angular downwards, smooth, lowest internodes short, the next up to over 1/2 in. long, the following gradually or irregularly decreasing; lower primary branches 1–2 in. long, divided from low down (occasionally undivided for 1/2–1 in.), the following from the base, very finely filiform to subcapillary, smooth; ultimate divisions capillary, wavy; pedicels unequal, the lateral 1–2 lin. long, the terminal slightly longer, with minute discoid tips. Spikelets ovate-elliptic, acute to subacute, 1 lin. long, dull, pale green or slightly tinged with brown, glabrous. Glumes very thinly membranous, faintly nerved, rather concave, obliquely oblong to (the lower) lanceolate in profile, the lower over three-quarters the length of the spikelet, 3-nerved, the upper subequal to the spikelet, 5-nerved. Lower floret ♂: valve very like the upper glume but less acute, 5-nerved; valvule slightly shorter. Upper floret hermaphrodite, elliptic, subobtuse, 2/3 lin. long; valve and valvule thinly papery, verruculose, turning fuscous when mature, with the warts showing like white pearls; anthers 2/3 lin. long. Grain pale brown, 1/2 lin. by 1/3 lin.; embryo much less than half the length of the grain.
