Annual tufted grass up to 60 cm tall. Leaf-blade flat or onvolute, 2-6 cm long, 1-4 mm wide; ligule up to 0.5 mm long; upper leaf-sheath more or less inflated partly enclosing the panicle. Panicle contracted, dense, up to 8 cm long. Glume thin, hyaline long attenuate, the lower 3-nerved, the upper 1-nerved, a little shorter than the lower; lemma terete, pubescent, constricted below the base of the awn. Awn articulate at the base, 6-10 cm long, hairy, scabrid; the awns twisted together at the top of the panicle from a tail.