Annual; culms (6-)18-45(-70) cm high, tufted, erect or geniculate at the base, moderately stout. Leaf-blades 5-17 cm long, 0.5-5(-8) mm wide, usually flat, with or without auricles up to 3.5 mm long at the base. Spikes straight or curved, 3-30 cm long, the rhachis rigid, slender to very thick, the spikelets slightly less than their own length apart. Spikelets 5-18 mm long, 5-8(-11)-flowered; upper glume 4-20(-30) mm long, half as long as to longer than the spikelets, 3-7(-9)-nerved, obtuse, rarely acute to acuminate; lemmas oblong to oblong-lanceolate, 3.2-8.5(-105) mm long, glabrous to scaberulous, obtuse, acute or erose at the tip, not turgid at maturity, usually awnless but rarely with a terminal awn up to 3(-10) mm long.