Culms 5.8–70 (–150) cm high. Leaves with auricles to 2.3 mm long; ligule 0.2–1.2 mm long, membranous; blade 2.8–21 cm long, 1.6–4.7 mm wide. Spikes 6.7–38 cm long, with (2–) 4–9 (–11) spikelets; peduncle glabrous or scabrous. Spikelets 35–55 mm long; rachilla with long dense hairs covering callus base. Glumes equal to subequal; lower glume subulate to narrowly oblong, 1.8–8 mm long, muticous or apically awned, chartaceous, (2–) 3 or 4 (–5)-veined. Callus narrowly triangular, not thickened at tip, dorsally rounded, densely hairy on margins. Basal lemma narrowly oblong to narrowly elliptic, 10–40 mm long, awned, firmer than glumes, dorsally rounded to keeled apically, 5 or 6-veined; awn 17–49 mm long, straight to variously recurved when dry, entered by 3 veins. Palea with 2 scabrous to ciliolate keels. Anthers 0.6–3.9 mm long. See also Green (1994: 470), Jacobs et al. (2008), Walsh (2015).
Usually grows in open areas along roads, on grassy hillsides and burnt ground, or on flood plains of rivers.
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