Annual; culms (10-)1540 cm high, erect or geniculately ascending. Leaf-blades 2.5-11 cm long, 3.5-8 mm wide. Inflorescence composed of 2-4(-6) racemes; racemes 2.5-8(11) cm long, subdigitate or arranged along an axis 1.5-2(4) cm long, the spikelets ternate on a ribbon-like winged rhachis with rounded or triquetrous midrib; pedicels terete to flattened and winged, scabrid, with discoid or cupuliform tip. Spikelets elliptic or lanceolate, 1.9-2.4 mm long; lower glume an obscure hyaline rim; upper glume almost as long as the spikelet, 5-nerved, with matted verrucose hairs between the nerves; lower lemma as long as the spikelet, 7-nerved, pubescent with matted verrucose hairs; fruit ellipsoid, dark brown to almost black.