Loosely tufted annual; culms 10-60 cm high, slender, geniculately ascending. Leaf-blades linear to narrowly lanceolate, 2-8 cm long, 2-5 mm wide, glabrous or pubescent. Inflorescence of 3-12 racemes on an axis 1-6 cm long; racemes 0.5-2.5 cm long, secund, bearing single spikelets imbricate on a triquetrous rhachis. Spikelets elliptic, 1.7-2.7 mm long, pubescent (rarely glabrous or villous), sub-acute; lower glume a minute scale 0.2-0.5 mm long (up to a fifth the length of the spikelet); upper lemma readily deciduous, smooth, shiny, obtuse.