Annual; culms 5-30(-55) cm high, erect. Leaf-blades up to 19 cm long, 3-9 mm wide, obtuse, shortly hairy on the margins; upper sheaths slightly inflated; ligule 2.5-7 mm long, obtuse. Panicle 1-12 cm long, 3.5-7 mm wide, cylindrical, pale green. Spikelets 1.5-2.8 mm long (including awns); glumes truncate, swollen at the tip, narrowed at the base, scabrid, sometimes slightly ciliate on the keel, the lower softly hairy on the margins; awn 0.3-0.6 mm long; lemma two-thirds the length of the glumes, 5-nerved, pubescent; anthers 0.5 mm long.