Annual; culms fasciculate or geniculately ascending, 10-20(25) cm high. Leaf-blades 1.5-5 cm long, 1.2-2.5 mm wide, scaberulous above and with sparse whitish tubercle-based hairs on the margins; sheaths with scattered tubercle-based hairs. Heads 3-5(6) on a rhachis 1.5-3 cm long. Glumes, including the awns, 10-15 mm long, usually purple-tinged and with whitish or purple hairs, the lower a little longer than the upper; lowest lemma 3-lobed, the lobes aristate, the central considerably longer than the laterals and narrower at the base, (4-)6-7 mm long; palea about equalling the lemma or slightly shorter than it.

Type: Abyssinia, Fresenius (FR).

Distribution: Pakistan (Sind, Baluchistan & Punjab); northwest India; Arabia to northeast tropical Africa.

A small desert grass.