Caespitose annual; culms robust, up to 100 cm tall, erect or geniculately ascending, often branching from the lower nodes; ligule with a definite ciliate fringe; leaf laminas 5–35 cm × 3–6 mm, usually folded.
Spikelets 4.6–7.8 mm long, elliptic; glumes acute, the inferior 2–3.2(3.9) mm long, often 2–3-nerved, the superior 3–4.7 mm long; lemmas 3.7–4.9 mm long, lanceolate in profile, acute to subacute.
Caryopsis 1.2–1.6 mm long, oblong to broadly oblong, the surface uniformly granular and obliquely ridged.
Racemes 3–17, 3.5–15.5 cm × 4–7 mm.