annual or perennial; culms erect from a geniculate or prostrate base, terete or subterete, up to 6 ft. high, in tall specimens to more than 3 lin. thick below, often rooting from the lower nodes, sheathed all along or some of the internodes at length exserted, often branched in the lower part; sheaths finely striate, smooth, terete or subcarinate above, quite glabrous, rarely pubescent at the lowest nodes; ligule a fringe of rather long stiff hairs, or sometimes 0 in the uppermost leaves; blades linear from a scarcely narrowed usually not decurrent base, long-tapering to a fine point, 1/2 to more than 1 1/2 ft. by 2 1/2–7 lin., flat, rigid or flaccid, glabrous, light green or glaucous, smooth above, scabrid below, particularly in the upper part, margins cartilaginous, scabrid to spinulous; panicle erect or nodding, 4–10 in. long, secund; axis slender, more or less flexuous, convex or flat on the back, usually hispidulous with scattered bristles, rarely glabrous except on the scabrid angles; branches few to many, distant or rather crowded, alternate, suberect or nodding, 1–2 in. long, forming often stout dense 2–4-ranked simple secund sessile false spikes; rhachis like the axis, but more slender; pedicels 4–2-nate, extremely short, tips discoid; spikelets crowded, ovate-oblong to lanceolate-ovate, 2–3 lin. long, rarely less, pallid, hispid; glumes thin, lower ovate, acuminate or mucronate, about 1/2 the length of the spikelet, 3- to sub-5-nerved, upper oblong, equalling the spikelet, concave, caudate-acuminate or produced into a short, scabrid, compressed awn, 5-nerved or 7-nerved at the tips, pubescent between the hispidulous nerves; lower floret ♂ or sometimes barren; valve similar to the upper glume, but flat or depressed on the back, subhyaline except the herbaceous sides, awn 2–12 lin. long; pale oblong, keels scabrid; anthers, when present, 1 lin. long; hermaphrodite floret oblong to lanceolate-oblong, mucronate-acuminate, 1 1/2–2 1/2 lin. long excluding the scabrid mucro, straw-coloured, smooth, shining; valve 5-nerved. null
