Tufted annual; culms up to 30 cm high, erect or geniculately ascending. Leaf-blades flat or folded, up to 10 cm long, 1-4 mm wide, scaberulous above, smooth beneath. Spike oblong, 1.5-4 cm long. Spikelets 3-5-flowered, the upper florets ± reduced; glumes lanceolate, acute or acuminate, 6-12 (-20) mm long, awnless; lemma 10-15(-22) mm long, linear-lanceolate, glabrous, scabrid or hairy, often produced at the tip into a short awn up to 3 mm long; palea-keels produced into 2 short blunt teeth with a shallow sinus between them.