Perennial with extensively creeping rhizomes, sward forming; rhizomes stout, close-noded. Culms decumbent at base or ascending, 20–50 cm tall. Leaf sheaths glabrous or ciliate at mouth; leaf blades broadly linear, 3–5 × 0.4–0.6 cm, glabrous or adaxial surface pilose near base, margins serrate, apex subacute; ligule 0.1–0.3 mm. Panicle dense, oblong in outline, 5–9 cm, purplish brown; branches erect when dry, 1.5–3 cm, tipped by a single triad. Sessile spikelet 3.5–4 mm; callus acicular, 4–6 mm, bearded with golden hairs, obliquely attached to branch apex; glumes leathery; lower glume lanceolate, 2-keeled upward, lower back smooth, glabrous, upper back thinner, keels hispidulous, apex acute to 2-toothed; upper glume setulose on upper keel, acuminate or mucronate, mucro 1–2 mm; upper lemma entire, awned; awn straight, 4–7 mm. Pedicelled spikelet staminate, 4–5.7 mm; lower glume acuminate or with mucro to 1 mm. Pedicel 3/4 length of sessile spikelet, glabrous. Fl. and fr. Jun–Oct. 2n = 20.
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The very long (3–4 mm.) needle-like callus is a menace, readily penetrating the mouths of cattle and the paws of dogs.
A sward-forming perennial, sometimes used for lawns.
Dry open grasslands, waste ground and lawns at elevations of 500-1,000 metres in China. Resistant to trampling, it is frequently found in overgrazed areas, is a vigorous colonizer of denuded ground and tends to dominate with regular burning.
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