Annual. Culms erect or geniculate at base, 50–150 cm tall, unbranched, 2–4-noded. Leaf sheaths glabrous or basal sheaths puberulous; leaf blades 10–30 cm, 4–12 mm wide, scabrid or adaxial surface and margins pilose; ligule 1–5 mm. Panicle narrowly to broadly pyramidal, 10–40 cm, nodding; branches scabrid. Spikelets 1.7–2.5 cm, florets 2 or 3, all florets awned; rachilla easily disarticulating below each floret at maturity, each floret with a bearded callus, internodes hirsute or glabrous; glumes lanceolate, subequal, herbaceous, 9–11-veined, apex finely acute; callus hairs up to 4 mm; lemmas 1.5–2 cm, leathery, glabrous to densely hispid in lower half, green and scaberulous above, awned from near middle, apex shortly 2–4-toothed; awn 2–4 cm, geniculate, column twisted, blackish brown. Fl. and fr. Apr–Sep. 2n = 42.

This is a noxious weed, especially in fields of wheat and cultivated oats, native to Europe and C and SW Asia, but now spread throughout temperate regions of the world.

Weed of cultivated fields, grassy mountain slopes, roadsides and other disturbed places; below 4300 m. Anhui, Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hebei, Heilongjiang, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Nei Mongol, Ningxia, Qinghai, Shaanxi, Sichuan, Taiwan, Xinjiang, Xizang, Yunnan, Zhejiang [Afghanistan, Bhutan, India (Sikkim), Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Nepal, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan; N Africa, SW Asia, Europe].