Plants annual, with a soft base. Flowering stems 20–60 cm long, glabrous. Leaf blades 1–3 mm wide, flat to strongly inrolled, glabrous or nearly so. Leaf sheaths glabrous. Glumes 2–11 mm long, about equal in length, 1‑nerved (the upper glume sometimes obscurely 3‑nerved), glabrous, the tip undivided, sharply pointed or with an awn 1–3 mm long. Lemmas with the body 3–10 mm long, glabrous to more commonly roughened or pubescent with appressed hairs, the awns persistent, not jointed at the tip of the lemma (the awns arise as a continuation of the lemma tip, without a cross‑line), circular in cross‑section, the central awn 1–27 mm long, straight and erect to spreading or sharply bent outward, but not coiled, the lateral awns 1–18 mm long or less commonly absent, erect to spreading or sharply curved. July–October.

Scattered nearly throughout Missouri, except the northwestern corner of the state (eastern U.S. and adjacent Canada west to Nebraska and Texas). Upland prairies, glades, bluffs, and dry upland forest; also old fields, pastures, fallow fields, railroads, roadsides, and dry, disturbed areas.

Missouri plants may be separated into two varieties.