Tufted annual; culms 7-15(-25) cm high, erect or geniculately ascending. Leaf-blades 2-14 cm long, 1-10 mm wide, glabrous, scaberulous on the margins; uppermost sheaths slightly inflated. Panicle 2-6 cm long, 1-2.5 cm wide, usually golden-yellow but sometimes tinged with purple. Spikelets pedicellate in groups of 2-5 at the ends of the branches, the pedicels villous. Sterile spikelet: 5-8 mm long; glumes linear-lanceolate; lemmas numerous, ovate, distichous, imbricate. Fertile spikelet: 2-3 mm long; glumes linear-lanceolate; fertile lemma ovate, 2-toothed at the apex and with a long awn from the sinus; sterile rudiment with a long awn.