Annuals or short-lived perennials, loosely tufted, weakly stoloniferous. Culms 1 to several, erect or geniculate ascending, 16–45 cm tall, 0.5–1 mm in diam., smooth or sparsely retrorse scabrid below lower nodes, glabrous, nodes 2 or 3, 1 or 2 exserted. Leaf sheaths smooth or sparsely scabrid near the collars, glabrous, 6–13 cm, slightly longer than blade, uppermost closed for 3/5 of length; blades flat, thin, 5–18 cm × 1–2.5 mm, abaxially nearly smooth to scabrid, adaxially and margins densely scabrid, apex slender prow-tipped; ligule 0.4–1.5(–2.3) mm, abaxially scabrid or puberulent, truncate to obtuse, collar margins often ciliate. Panicle open, lax, 8–18 × 3–8 cm, longest internodes 2.5–4 cm; branches ascending to spreading, flexuous, 1–4 per node, slender, scabrid throughout, longest 3–7 cm with 3–8 spikelets in distal 1/3. Spikelets narrowly elliptic, 3.7–5.2 mm, florets (1–)2–3(–4); vivipary absent; rachilla internodes to 1–1.5 mm, smooth, glabrous; glumes distinctly unequal, slender, acuminate, distinctly shorter than first lemma, keels scabrid, upper surface and edges smooth or scabrid, lower glume, subulate to wedge-shaped, 1.5–2.4 mm, straight or only slightly convexed, 1-veined, upper glume 2.2–3.3 mm, 3-veined; lemmas oblong to elliptic, very thinly to thinly papery, (2.8–)3.3–4.2 mm, ca. 5 × as long as wide, apex slightly acuminate, margins finely scabrid along edge, keel pilulose to shortly villous for 1/3–1/2 of length, marginal veins to 1/3, intermediate veins faint to prominent, areas between veins smooth or minutely bumpy over some or most of length, glabrous; callus webbed; palea distinctly shorter than lemma, smooth, glabrous between keels, keels scabrid, glabrous. Anthers 0.6–1 mm. Fl. and fr. May–Jul.
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