Stoloniferous perennial; cuhms 5-70 cm high, erect or geniculately ascending, slender to somewhat stout, succulent, smooth. Leaf-blades 4-20 cm long, 2-10 mm wide, rather thin. Panicle ovate to oblong, 5-30 cm long, 2.5-10 cm wide, the branches in half whorls of 3-5, successive whorls alternating. Spikelets 3-5 mm long, breaking up at maturity between the lemmas, green, yellow or brown, often variegated with purple; glumes obovate, blunt, the lower 1-1.5 mm long, the upper 1.5-2.5 mm long; lemma (1.5-)2.5-3.5 mm long, smooth or with minute hairs on the nerves.

Type locality: Europe.

Distribution: Pakistan (Baluchistan & Kashmir); throughout the range of the genus.

An aquatic grass with sweet stems and succulent foliage eagerly sought by cattle. Smaller plants with panicles about 6 cm long and purple spikelets have been separated as Catahrosa sikkimensis, but such variants occur sporadically throughout the range of Catahrosa aquatica and are of little taxonomic consequence. Another variant, even less well-marked, has shorter panicle branches (up to 5 cm) and smaller lemmas (1.5-1.7 mm long). It is sometimes separated as var. angusta.