Tufted annual; culms 10-40 cm high, ascending. Leaf-blades linear-lanceolate, 4-14 cm long, 5-14 mm wide, pilose or hispid with tubercle-based hairs, acute; sheaths hispid. Panicle ovate or oblong, 6-20 cm long with fine regular spreading branches. Spikelets elliptic-oblong, 1.8-2.2 mm long, glabrous, shortly acuminate; lower glume broadly crate, about two-thirds the length of the spikelet, 3-5-nerved, acuminate; upper glume ovate, 5-7-nerved; lower lemma 5-7-nerved, its palea two-thirds as long; upper lemma orange-brown to dark chestnut coloured, smooth and shining.

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

Type: Ethiopia, Schimper 1709(K).

Distribution: Pakistan (Punjab); India; Ethiopia southwards to Rhodesia.

This is excellent fodder grass found in the plains.