Annual 2–6 dm; culms glabrous; sheaths and blades softly villous, the latter 3–6 mm wide; ligule 0.5–1.5(–2) mm; infl 6–15 cm, loose and open, tending to be nodding and secund, the slender branches often bearing only a single spikelet nearly or fully as long; spikelets somewhat flattened, lanceolate to ovate, 8–15-fld, 15–30 mm, to 13 mm wide; glumes broad, obtuse, several-veined, the first 5–8 mm, the second 6–9 mm; lemmas 9–12 mm, 7-or 9-veined, glabrous or minutely puberulent, very obtuse, somewhat inflated at base, 2.5–4 mm wide on a side; awn to 1 mm, or none; palea evidently shorter than the lemma; anthers scarcely 1 mm; 2n=14. Native of sw. Asia, sparingly intr. throughout most of the U.S. except in the south.
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