Annual; culms 25-150 cm high, erect. Leaf-blades 7-35 cm long, 5-12 mm wide; ligule absent; sheaths smooth and glabrous. Inflorescence linear to narrowly ovate, 6-25 cm long, the racemes irregularly 2-rowed, the longest 2-5 cm long, usually simple. Spikelets ovate-elliptic, 3.8-6.5 mm long, hispid; lower lemma acuminate or with an awn up to 2.5 cm long; upper lemma 3.5-5 mm long, including the short herbaceous tip.