Tufted annual; culms 15-75 cm high, erect or geniculately ascending. Leaf-blades 7-20 cm long, 5-11.5 mm wide, soft, glabrous or sparsely pilose on the upper surface, rounded at the base, tapering to a fine hair-like tip. Inflorescence composed of several to many slender ascending secund spikes 1.5-10 cm long. Spikelets 6-25-flowered, 5.5-13 mm long, closely overlapping, whitish-green or brownish; glumes unequal, the lower 1.2-3.0 mm long, acute and mucronate, the upper 1.5-3.0 mm long, acuminate and awned, the awn one- to two- thirds as long as the glume; lemmas narrowly ovate in profile, 2-2.8 mm long with a stout awn-point 0.3-0.9 mm long.

Type: India, Heyne (B).

Distribution: Pakistan (Punjab, N.W.F.P. & Kashmir); tropical Africa, Southeast Asia and Australia.

A sporadic monsoon grass, reported to be a good fodder grass for cattle.