Tufted annual; culms 15-75 cm high, erect or ascending. Leaf-blades 4-20 cm long, 2-6.5 mm wide, scabrid above, smooth beneath; ligule 2.5-3.5 mm long. Panicle narrowly to broadly ovate, 65-27 cm long, loose to very loose, the branches in subwhorls and capillary to rather stiff. Spikelets 45-11 mm long, 3-11-flowered, the uppermost floret often a rudiment; lower glume lanceolate, acute, 1.3-2.5 mm long; upper glume narrowly ovate, acute or subacute, 2-3 mm long; lemmas ovate-elliptic, 3-3.5 mm long, obtuse, abruptly acute or very shortly acuminate, glabrous or minutely hairy on the keel and marginal nerves below, scaberulous on the back; anthers 1.4-2.5 mm long.