Tufted annual; culms 15-60 cm high, erect or spreading, rather stout. Leaf-blades 4-20 cm long, 1.5-7 mm wide, flat, with or without auricles up to 2 mm long at the base. Spike straight, (3-)5-12(-21) cm long, slender to rather stiff and somewhat thickened, the spikelets ± their own length apart. Spikelets 10-22(-27) mm long (excluding the awns), 4-11-flowered; upper glume (5)7.5-23 mm long, two-thirds to as long as the spikelet, 5-7-nerved, obtuse or acute, lemmas lanceolate, 8-12 mm long, smooth, acute or attenuate, sometimes obtuse, not turgid at maturity, always awned with an awn up to 18 mm long.

Type: Iran, Kotschy 278 (G, BM, K etc.).

Distribution: Pakistan (Baluchistan & Punjab), throughout the Middle East from Turkey to Afghanistan and southern USSR; introduced in North America.