Slender annual or ephemeral plants (7–) 14–25 (–33) cm high, usually prickly-hispid with tuberclebased hairs on culms and foliage. Culms branched, often fastigiate, (usually antrorsely) scabrous; nodes pubescent. Leaves: sheaths usually slightly shorter than culm internodes; blade to 4 cm long, to 4 mm wide, with indumentum often particularly dense along margins. Panicles open at maturity, 4–5 (–8) cm long, 1.5–4 cm wide, with prominent pulvini. Glumes 2.5–5 mm long, longer than wide, acuminate to long-acuminate or acute, muticous to aristulate (awnlet to 1 mm long), usually 7–9-nerved, glabrous or pilose with tubercle-based hairs sometimes only near margins (especially on the lower glume), scabrous or tuberculate or finally smooth. Florets slightly shorter than glumes. Callus entirely bearded. Lemma 2–3 mm long, attenuating into (usually) 1.5–3 mm long awn, 5-nerved, without grooves, hirsute in lower 1/3–3/4 with simple or tubercle-based hairs usually reaching lemma apex, ciliate on margins for entire length, otherwise glabrous and smooth. Palea entire or bicuspidate, pubescent between keels. Caryopsis 1.3–1.5 mm long.
Acommon species of shallow and skeletal sandy or loam soils on laterite, sandstone,quartzite or granite. Common habitats include plateaux, hillslopes, ridges,gorge floors, and sometimes seasonally wet sites in and near watercourses.Sites are often gravelly, rocky or stony.
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