Annual. Culms stout. Leaf-sheaths almost glabrous (? always) at the nodes; ligules up to 1 lin. long, dark purple, densely ciliate from the back; blades linear-lanceolate from a broad clasping base, over 1 ft. by 2–2 1/2 in., subglaucous, sparingly spotted with red, tomentose inside at the base of the midrib. Panicle oblong, 1–1 1/4 ft. by 3–5 in., erect, contracted, dense; branches scattered or more or less verticillate, obliquely erect, the longest 3–6 in. long, branched almost from the base, but the lowest ramifications arrested, hence naked for 1–2 1/2 in., flexuous, like the branchlets very slender, almost filiform, and rather rough all along. Racemes up to 6-noded and up to 10 lin. long, crowded; joints slender to very slender, 1 to over 1 1/2 lin. long, ciliate, cilia white, under 1/2 lin. long; pedicels very similar, tips minutely discoid. Sessile spikelet oblong-lanceolate, subacute, 2 1/4–2 1/2 lin. by 1–1 1/3 lin., straw-colour, flushed with bright-red below; callus-beard less than 1/2 lin. long. Glumes equal, coriaceous, thinner upwards, lower 13–15-nerved, sometimes minutely 3-toothed, sparingly and finely strigillose mainly below and on the sides, or almost quite glabrous and glossy, nerves very slightly raised at the very tips, keels short, sharp, somewhat rough, upper glume 9-nerved, very obscurely keeled, tip straight or slightly recurved, usually both involute when mature. Valves ciliate, lower oblong to elliptic, 2–2 1/2 lin. long, upper broad ovate, shortly 2-lobed, 1 1/2 lin. long; awn up to 6 lin. long, sharply bent above the middle. Grain elliptic-rotundate in outline, 1 1/2–1 3/4 by 1 1/4 lin., almost equally convex on both sides, slightly translucent, white; embryo-mark very distinct, elliptic-oblong, exceeding the middle of the grain. Pedicelled spikelet neuter, though often both valves present, persistent or deciduous, linear, acute, 2 1/2 lin. long, greenish; lower glume 7–9-, upper about 7-nerved.
