Slender annual 2–6 dm, erect or nearly so, branched from the base; blades erect, 2–6 mm wide; peduncle exsert, often elongate, the panicle 6–20 cm, half to a third as thick, with numerous ascending or spreading capillary branches, the axillary pulvini glabrous; spikelets narrowly lanceolate, 2.6–3.6 mm; first glume usually acute, nearly half as long as the acuminate second glume and sterile lemma; fr stramineous, narrowly ellipsoid, 1.8–2 mm, a fourth to a third as wide; 2n=18. Moist or dry soil, often in open woods; N.Y. and s. Ont. to N.D., s. to Fla. and Tex.