Annual; culms 6-80 cm high, erect or geniculately ascending. Leaf-blades 5-20 cm long, 2-8 mm wide, rough; ligule 3-15 mm long. Panicle narrowly ovate to narrowly oblong, cylindrical or lobed, 1.5-16 cm long, 1-3.5 cm wide, very dense and bristly, pale green or yellowish. Spikelets 2-3 mm long; glumes slightly notched at the apex, rough with minute points especially in the lower part, minutely hairy on the margins, with a fine straight awn 4-7 mm long; lemma about half the length of the glumes, smooth, awnless or with an awn up to 2 mm long.

Fl. & Fr. Per.: throughout much of the year, but mostly between March and July.

Type: Europe, cultivated at Uppsala, Sweden, originating from Montpellier, France, Linnaeus (LINN).

Distribution: Pakistan (Sind, Baluchistan, Punjab, N.W.F.P., Gilgit & Kashmir); northeast tropical and South Africa; Mediterranean region northwards to the British Isles and eastwards to India and China; introduced and naturalised in most warm temperate countries.

Also recorded from Thatta district. Very common throughout Pakistan from the plains to 4000 m. Grown as an ornamental but often becoming a weed. Of little value for fodder.