Perennial; culms 2-4 m. long, stout, reed-like, tangled, decumbent and strag-gling at the base, glaucous, sometimes with erect sterile branches at the swollen nodes; sheaths smooth; blades 30-45 cm. long, 8-15 mm. wide, glabrous on both surfaces, the margins scabrous; panicles 20-30 cm. long, the slender scabrous branches fascicled, ascending to spreading, some of them naked at the base; spike-lets 3.2-4 mm. long, short-pedicellate, turgid, glabrous, gaping, the first glume pointed, about two-thirds as long as the spikelet; fruit 2-2.2 mm. long.