Annual, 1/2–1 ft. high, tufted. Culms slender, suberect or ascending from a more or less prostrate base, geniculate and branched from the lower nodes, 3–6-noded, uppermost internode by far the longest, terete, glabrous, rarely pubescent, lower internodes sometimes compressed, often hairy below the nodes. Leaf-sheaths rather loose, the lower short and mostly hairy, the uppermost long, slightly tumid upwards, often glabrous except at the pubescent outer margin, all striate and pubescent or villous at the nodes; ligules a fringe of short hairs; blades lanceolate to (the lowest) subovate from a rounded base, acute or subacute, 1/2–2 in. by 2–4 lin., flat, somewhat thick, green, glabrous or more or less loosely hairy, margins markedly cartilaginous, scabrid or minutely spinulously ciliolate, the inner often crisped, primary lateral nerves 3–4 on each side, differentiated from the numerous very fine secondary ones only below, midrib very slender. Panicle long-exserted, more or less secund, of few to 8 obliquely erect or spreading spike-like solitary moderately distant mostly simple racemes; common axis slender, angular, pubescent or almost glabrous, scabrid or ciliolate along the angles, terminating with a spikelet. Racemes rather dense, rarely over 1/2 in. long, the uppermost shorter, all sessile or subsessile and simple or the lowermost sometimes with 1 or 2 very short secondary racemes at the base; rhachis very slender, wavy, about 1/7 lin. wide, more or less triquetrous, scabrid or ciliolate to ciliate along the angles, glabrous or pubescent on the faces; pedicels mostly solitary, very short with subdiscoid tips, or if paired the longer up to almost 1 lin. long, angular, scabrid, with few to many fine white hairs from the upper part. Spikelets mostly subsessile, about 1/2 lin. apart, 2-seriate and subcontiguous, subovoid, turgid, very convex on the back, 1 lin. long, subacute, green or faintly tinged with purple, glabrous or pubescent. Glumes very unequal; the lower broad-ovate, subacute to almost obtuse, about one-third the length of the spikelet, 1–3-nerved; upper corresponding in shape and size to the spikelet, thinly membranous, 5-nerved. Lower floret neuter: valve broad-elliptic, subacute, more or less flattened or slightly depressed and almost hyaline between the inner nerves, otherwise resembling the upper glume; valvule oblong, slightly shorter than the valve. Upper floret hermaphrodite, ovate to elliptic-oblong, shortly acute to subacute, almost 1 lin. long; valve and valvule crustaceous, straw-coloured, very finely pitted, without transverse wrinkles. Grain almost orbicular in outline, dorsally slightly compressed, 1/2– 2/3 lin. long, dull pea-green; scutellum equalling three-quarters of the grain.
