Annual up to 80 cm high. Panicle narrowly ovate to narrowly oblong, cylindrical or lobed, 1.5–16 cm long, very dense and bristly. Spikelets 2–3 mm long; glumes slightly notched at the tip, scabrid below, minutely hairy on the margins, with a fine straight awn 4–7 mm long; lemma about 1/2 the length of the glumes, smooth, awnless or with an awn up to 2 mm long.
