Weakly ascending, caespitose, annual or short-lived perennial. Culms to 45 cm high; 3 or 4-noded. Leaves: basal sheaths usually scaberulous; ligules 4–5 mm long, becoming erose; blade rather lax, flat, to c. 15 cm long, 1.0–1.5 mm wide. Panicle open, to 20 cm long, usually exserted but sometimes base enclosed in upper leaf sheath; peduncle retrorsely scabrid; primary branches stiff, spreading, becoming purplish with age. Spikelets 2.0–2.8 mm long; pedicel clavate, 4–24 mm long; rachilla extension plumose or sometimes glabrous, 0.6–1.4 mm long. Glumes diverging, subequal or lower glume slightly longer. Lemma 1.5–1.8 mm long, glabrous or with scattered hairs, 5-nerved, minutely toothed at apex; awn arising in upper half of lemma back, 0.4–3.8 mm long, straight to geniculate. Palea slightly shorter to slightly longer than lemma, acute, sometimes minutely bilobed. Stamens 3; anthers 0.5–0.6 mm long.
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