Annual, biennial or short-lived perennial; culms 30-130 cm high, tufted or solitary, erect or spreading, slender to rather stout. Leaf-blades (6-)11-22 cm long, 3-8 mm wide, convolute when young, usually with auricles 1-4 mm long at the base. Spikes straight or slightly curved, 15-33(-45) cm long, slender to rather stout, the spikelets overlapping or their own length or more apart. Spikelets 8-30 mm long (excluding the awns), (5-)11-22-flowered; upper glume 5-14 (-18) mm long, 0.25-05 times the length of the spikelet, not much longer than the lowest floret, 3-7-nerved, obtuse, acute or slightly erose; lemmas oblong to oblong-lanceolate, 4-8 mm long, smooth or minutely scaberulous, acute, obtuse or slightly bifid, not turgid at maturity; awns rarely absent, up to 15 mm long.

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

Type: France (P).

Distribution: Pakistan (Baluchistan & N. W. F. P.); Central and southern Europe, Northwest Africa and Southwest Asia; introduced into most temperate countries.

Italian Rye-Grass readily hybridises with Lolium perenee and species of Festuca. It is a valuable fodder grass.

160-2600 m.