Rhizomatous and stoloniferous perennials; base thick or knotted. Culms to 70 cm high, wiry. Leaves mostly smooth, glabrous; lower sheaths overlapping; ligule a fringe of hairs, 0.3–0.5 mm long; blade flat or rolled, setaceous, with thick scabrid margins. Panicles loosely contracted, 6–10 cm long, 2–4 cm wide, scabrous. Spikelets shortly pedicellate, linear or irregular, laterally compressed, 5–11.5 mm long, 1.5–2 mm wide; rachilla weakly flexuose, with lower internodes usually longer than upper ones; florets 5–11, loosely overlapping. Glumes usually persistent, unequal, linearlanceolate, carinate; lower glume 2.3–4 mm long; upper glume 3.5–4.5 mm long. Lemma lanceolate, 2.5–3.3 mm long, acute or acuminate, membranous; lateral nerves in lower half only or absent. Palea: body linear-oblong, finally dividing along midline; keels smooth; flaps wider than body. Stamens 3; anthers linear, 1.2–2.3 mm long. Grain oblong, c. 1.2 mm long, stipitate.
Grows on cracking clays, alluvial sandy loams,roadsides, and in seasonally flooded habitats.
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