Loosely caespitose annual; culms up to 40 cm tall, erect, unbranched; leaf sheaths chartaceous, thinly pilose with tubercle-based hairs, lightly compressed but with a conspicuous keel; leaf laminas 1.5–5 cm × 2–4.5 mm, flat, thinly pilose with tubercle-based hairs, strongly tuberculate-pectinate on the margins, acute at the apex.
Panicle 4.5–10 cm long, lanceolate; branches in a succession of whorls, smooth, eglandular, the spikelets loosely disposed along the primary branches on pedicels 1–2 mm long.
Grain obovate, c. 1.5 mm long, strongly laterally compressed.