Tufted glaucous annual; culms up to 100 cm high, erect or geniculately ascending. Leaf-blades flat or rolled, up to 20 cm long, 3-8 mm wide, scabrid. Spike 4-13 cm long (excluding the awns); rhachis fragile or sometimes tough below, shortly ciliate along the margins. Spikelets 2(-3)-flowered; glumes 9-12 mm long, shortly scabrid-ciliate on the keel, acuminate or with an awn up to 5 mm long; lemmas 8-12 mm long, with an awn 2-7 cm long.