Delicate annual. Culms very slender, laxly ascending, base often decumbent, rooting at lower nodes but not stoloniferous, 12–30 cm tall, panicles terminating main stem and also short lateral branches. Leaf sheaths pilose, sometimes sparsely, outer margin ciliate; leaf blades linear-lanceolate, thin, 2–6 × 0.3–0.7 cm, glabrous or pilose, margins firm, apex acute; ligule 1–1.5 mm. Panicle open, ovate to pyramidal in outline, 1.5–8 cm, many-spiculate when well developed; branches and pedicels regularly spaced, divaricate at maturity, capillary, smooth; pedicels longer than spikelets, often with a gland halfway along their length. Spikelets subglobose, 1–1.5 mm, green or purplish; florets similar; glumes subequal to spikelet, ovate, lower (3–)5-veined, upper 7-veined, hispidulous to setose above middle, margins broad, incurving at apex; lemmas whitish, strongly convex, leathery, densely pubescent. Fl. and fr. Jul–Nov.