Leafy annual, usually tinged with purple; culms erect or decumbent at the base, sometimes rooting at the lower nodes, 40-70 cm. high, glabrous; sheaths loose, thin, compressed, keeled, glabrous; ligule 1.5-2 mm. long; blades commonly 10-15 cm. long, 5-10 mm. wide, sparsely pilose on the upper surface at the base; panicle short-exserted from the upper bladeless sheath, 4-8 cm. long, the axis more or less flexuous; racemes 2-7, arcuate-spreading, 1-6 cm. long, the rachis about 1 mm. wide with a few long hairs at the base; spikelets 2 mm. long, obovate, strongly convex on the back; second glume and sterile lemma equal, thin, glabrous or nearly so, the lemma often minutely wrinkled inside the margin; fruit hemis-pherical, dark brown, shining.
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