Tufted annual up to 70 cm high, erect or geniculately ascending; leaves lanceolate to narrowly ovate. Raceme 12–17 cm long, usually partially embraced below the uppermost sheath, the spikelets ascending. Spikelets 5.6–7.6 mm long, with a linear,stipitiform callus 2–2.3 mm long; glumes coarsely scabrid on the flanks, the scabridities ± in longitudinal lines, the midnerve conspicuously spinose with curved prickles, that of the upper glume deeply depressed; awns slender, flexuous, 10–20 mm long. Caryopsis strongly flattened.
