Spikelets 3–4 × c. 1 mm, narrowly oblong, laterally compressed, 5–6-flowered, the lemmas disarticulating from below upwards, the rhachilla persistent below but fragile above; glumes subequal, 1.3–1.5 mm long, reaching to between 1/2 and 3/4 the way along the adjacent lemmas, keeled, lanceolate in profile, glabrous, acute at the apex; lemmas 1.5–1.7 mm long, keeled, elliptic in profile, membranous with distinct lateral nerves, appressed to the rhachilla, those in opposite rows scarcely imbricate, the rhachilla ± visible between them, greyish-green, scaberulous on the nerves and flanks, subacute at the apex; palea persistent, glabrous on the flanks, the keels slender, wingless, faintly scaberulous; anthers 3, 0.6–0.8 mm long.
Panicle 3.5–5 cm long, ovate, open with stiff branches, the spikelets evenly distributed on pedicels 0.8–1.5 mm long, the primary branches not in whorls, terminating in a fertile spikelet, shortly pilose in the axils, with shallowly depressed glands at the midpoint of the pedicels and occasional on the branches and branchlets.
Stiff wiry caespitose annual or short-lived perennial; culms up to 25 cm tall, erect, branched below, glabrous at the nodes, eglandular; leaf sheaths papillose-hirsute, eglandular; ligule a line of hairs; leaf laminas 1–3.5 cm × 1–1.5 mm, linear, stiff and pungent, usually involute, papillose-hirsute below, eglandular.
Caryopsis c. 0.7 mm long, broadly elliptic.