Annual. Culms 10–60 cm high, branched, without pungent cataphylls protecting new growth; nodes glabrous. Leaves: ligule hair-fringed, 1–1.5 mm long; blade 1–12 cm long, 1–3 mm wide, midrib not prominently winged, margin glabrous or hairy. Inflorescence a spike-like cylindrical raceme, racemes solitary in a subtending spathe and pedunculate, peduncles to 15 cm long, racemes 2–8 cm long, comprised of 6–12 spikelet pairs, each spikelet pair in segments stacked one on top of the other; spikelet pairs alternating along raceme, glumes of both spikelets usually visible from all angles; raceme internodes and pedicels 2–3 mm long, fused and indistinguishable from each other, excavated on one side to form a cavity, glabrous in middle with a basal and apical fringe of silky hairs or silky hairs throughout. Sessile spikelets 1.8–2.8 mm long, 1.2–1.5 mm wide, embedded into cavity of rachis to form a terete joint; lower glume ovate to elliptic, rounded on back, same size as spikelet, without wings, obtuse, smooth with silky white hairs obscuring surface, indurated; upper glume ovate or elliptic, rounded on back with incurved margins, slightly shorter than lower glume, acute, glabrous, membranous to chartaceous; florets 2, the lower lemma ovate to elliptic, acute, glabrous, hyaline, sterile, palea absent, the upper lemma ovate to elliptic, hyaline, bisexual, upper palea narrowly elliptic, c. 0.5 mm long (only one measured). Pedicellate spikelets similar size to sessile spikelets but reduced to two flat, unequal glumes, asymmetrical with irregularly tapered tip, membranous, overlapping with the joint or segment of rachis above it, sterile, 3.6–5.4 mm long.
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