Perennial with slender spreading rhizomes. Culms decumbent, branching, up to 70 cm tall. Leaf sheaths glabrous; leaf blades flat or folded, 2–20 × 0.2–0.7 cm, glabrous or pilose, margins sometimes setose at base, apex acute or cuspidate; ligule 0.1–1 mm, margin ciliolate. Raceme straight or almost so, 5–12 cm; rachis internodes oblong-clavate, glabrous, 2.5–4 mm. Sessile spikelet 4.5–5 mm; lower glume ovate or ovate-oblong, glabrous, 5–7-veined, marginal spines straight, often flattened toward base, longest 1–1.5 mm, shorter than glume width, apex acute, flanked by large, fanlike wings. Pedicelled spikelet absent; pedicel ± leaflike, obliquely obovoid.