Annual or short-lived perennial; culms 10-45 cm high, geniculately ascending and sometimes rooting from the lower nodes. Leaf-blades 2-10 cm long, 2-5 mm wide, glabrous; upper sheaths slightly inflated; ligule 2-5 mm long, obtuse. Panicle 1-6.5 cm long, 3-6 mm wide, cylindrical. Spikelets 1.5-3 mm long; glumes obtuse, ± parallel at the tips, connate at the base, wingless, ciliate on the keel, shortly hairy on the sides; lemma as long as or very slightly longer than the glumes, obtuse, the margins connate for a third to half their length; awn not or only slightly exceeding the lemma tip; anthers 0.8-13 mm long.

Fl. & Fr.Per.: July-August.

Type: USSR, Sobolewsky (LE).

Distribution: Pakistan (N.W.F.P. & Kashmir); throughout Europe, temperate Asia and North America.

Orange Fox-tail (so-called from the colour of its anthers) is a common grass of watersides, ditches and shallow water, often forming swards on drying mud. 2000-4500 m.