Annual. Culms 25–30 cm high, branched, pungent cataphylls not present; nodes hairy. Leaves: ligule hair-fringed, c. 1 mm long; blade 3–6 cm long, 1–3 mm wide, margin hairy but not scabrid, midrib not prominently winged. Inflorescence 1 (rarely 2) spike-like cylindrical racemes, each raceme solitary in a subtending spathe and pedunculate, peduncles to c. 12 cm long, racemes 10–40 mm long, comprised of 5–10 spikelet pairs, spikelet pairs alternating along raceme, glumes of sessile spikelet, internodes and pedicels usually visible from all angles although generally glumes more prevalent on one side, and internodes and pedicels generally more prevalent on the other; internodes and pedicels 3–5 mm long, glabrous, excavated on one side to form a cavity, pedicels fused to internode for half its length. Sessile spikelets 2–3.5 mm long, 1.3–2 mm wide, embedded into cavity of rachis to form a ± terete joint; lower glume ovate, rounded on back, more or less the same size as spikelet, without wings, obtuse, slightly rugose, with fine sparse hairs, indurated; upper glume ovate, ± equal to lower glume, not keeled or winged, acute, glabrous, membranous; florets 2, the lower lemma elliptic, glabrous, membranous or opaque-hyaline, sterile, palea absent, the upper lemma narrowly elliptical, membranous or opaque-hyaline, fertile, upper palea elliptical. Pedicellate spikelets sterile, much shorter than sessile spikelet, reduced to a glume fragment, c. 0.5 mm long, asymmetrically subulate with finely tapered apex or indistinct from pedicel, chartaceous.
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