Annuals or short-lived perennials. Culms 1 to several, erect or geniculately ascending, (12–)20–50(–70) cm tall, 0.5–0.8 mm in diam., smooth or scabrid below the lower nodes, glabrous, nodes 2–5, 1 or 2 exserted. Leaf sheaths smooth or scabrid or glabrous to strigulose near the collars, 5–15 cm, 1–3 × as long as blade, uppermost closed for 2/5–1/2 of length; blade flat, thin, 3–15 cm × (0.5–)1–2.5 mm, abaxially smooth or scabrid, adaxially and margins densely scabrid, glabrous, apex slender prow-tipped, of tillers up to 10 cm; ligule 0.8–2.5 mm, abaxially smooth, glabrous, apex truncate to obtuse, collar margins sparsely shortly ciliate or glabrous. Panicle open, ovoid, lax, (6–)9–20 × 3–8 cm, longest internodes 3–5 cm; branches ascending, spreading to reflexed, 2 per node, slender, proximally smooth or sparsely scabrid, distally scabrid angled, longest 4–9 cm with (3–)5–10 spikelets in distal 1/3. Spikelets narrowly elliptic, 3–5 mm, florets 2–4; vivipary absent; rachilla internodes to 1 mm, smooth, glabrous; glumes unequal, slender, acuminate, keels slightly convex, sparsely scabrid, surfaces apically smooth or sparsely scabrid, lower glume (2–)3–3.7 mm, 1-veined, upper glume (3–)3.5–4.5 mm, prominently 3-veined; lemmas oblong to elliptic, very thinly papery, 2.5–4.3 mm, ca. 5 × as long as wide, apex slightly acuminate, keel of at least some lemmas pilulose to short villous for 1/3(–1/2) of length, marginal veins for 1/4(–1/3), intermediate veins faint to prominent, areas between veins smooth or minutely bumpy only near base, glabrous; callus sparsely webbed; paleas distinctly shorter than the lemma, smooth, glabrous between keels, keels scabrid, medially sparsely pilulose, area margins narrowly hyaline. Anthers 0.6–1 mm. Fl. and fr. May–Jul.
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