Spikelets narrowly lanceolate, small, very shortly pedicelled on the very short branches of a spiciform panicle; rhachilla readily disarticulating between the upper glume and lower floret and between the florets, glabrous, not produced beyond the upper floret. Florets 2, heteromorphous; lower barren; upper hermaphrodite. Glumes persistent, thinly membranous, unequal, 3-nerved; lower shorter, lanceolate-ovate to ovate, acute or acuminate, awned from the tip; upper as long as the spikelet, broadly lanceolate to elliptic-lanceolate, acuminate, mucronate or shortly awned from the tip. Lower floret: valve lanceolate, setaceously acuminate, as long as the spikelet, thinly membranous, 5-nerved, with 2 additional nerves upwards; valvule oblanceolate to linear, acutely acuminate, 2-keeled, with the flattened back becoming indurated and thickened, and with very narrow inflexed margins. Upper floret linear-oblong, terete, with a short obtuse bearded callus: valve with involute margins, thinly chartaceous, 5-nerved, 2-lobed, with the lobes acute and shortly aristate, with one or two tufts of hairs below each lobe, awned between the two lobes; awn geniculate, articulated with the valve, twisted below the bend; valvule linear-oblong, 2-keeled, with the keels narrowly winged and approximate. Lodicules 2, narrowly cuneate. Stamens 3; anthers oblong. Ovary glabrous; style free, very slender; stigmas elongated, shortly papillose, laterally exserted. Grain oblanceolate, subterete, narrowly grooved on the side of the valvule; scutellum about half the length of the grain; hilum narrowly linear, elongated. —Annual; culms few-noded; blades linear-lanceolate, flat; ligule a fringe of hairs; panicle cylindric, dense; spikelets pale green or purplish.