Annual, tufted, 1/2–3 ft. high. Culms erect or geniculate-suberect, usually branched all along or upwards with the branches erect, usually about 6-noded, terete, slender, densely hirsute to almost glabrous, internodes mostly at length bared by the slipping off of the sheaths. Leaf-sheaths at first tight, then loosened, somewhat firm, strongly and closely striate, more or less hirsute, sometimes densely so, hairs spreading from small persistent tubercles; ligule a densely ciliate rim; blades narrowly linear from an equally wide base, tapering to a slender point, 1/3 to over 1 ft. long, 1–2 lin. wide, flat or convolute and flexuous, finely hirsute, mainly from the midrib and primary nerves, these 2–3 on each side, like the midrib very slender, somewhat prominent below, hardly differentiated above. Panicles terminal and axillary, oblong to obovate, contracted or open, flexuous or slightly stiff, 3–9 in. long, when opened out up to 4 in. wide and very loose, divided to the third or fourth degree, all divisions very slender to finely filiform, obliquely spreading when mature (see note below), upwards sharply angular and scabrid, all over loosely to very loosely and finely hirsute; primary branches irregularly scattered, often approximate in pairs or false whorls, with obscure motile cushions at the base, divided from the base or some distance (a few to 9 lin.) above it, the longest 2–5 in. long, divisions remotely divided again twice (below with 2 rarely 3 spikelets) or once, 8–2-spiculate; pedicels hardly widened at all upwards, the lateral 1–3 lin. long. Spikelets oblong, acutely acuminate, early gaping, sometimes widely so, slightly over 1 lin. long, pale greenish or brownish with darker tips, stiffly hairy. Glumes obliquely spreading to subdivaricate, very similar, obliquely lanceolate in profile, thinly membranous, finely and slightly prominently nerved; lower rather narrower and more finely acuminate, usually mucronate, three-quarters to over four-fifths the length of the upper, 5-nerved, upper 5–7-nerved. Lower floret ♂: valve similar to the upper glume but slightly shorter, less or obscurely acuminate, 5-nerved, outer nerves very faint; valvule lanceolate-oblong, slightly shorter, acuminate, flaps wide below; anthers 1/2 lin. long. Upper floret hermaphrodite, oblong, about 2/3 lin. by not quite 1/4 lin., whitish, smooth, slightly glossy.
