Tufted annual; culms 10-50(150) cm high. Leaf-blades broadly linear to narrowly lanceolate, 3-25 cm long, 2-12 mm wide. Inflorescence of 3-15 spreading or appressed racemes borne on an axis 4-15 cm long; racemes 3-7 cm long, bearing single or paired spikelets loosely spaced on a triquetrous rhachis; pedicels shorter than the spikelets. Spikelets elliptic, 2.5-4.5 mm long, glabrous or papillose pubescent, obtuse to acute, with a stipe 0.3-0.7 mm long; lower glume a quarter to half the length of the spikelet; upper glume and lower lemma thinly cartilaginous, smooth, slightly shiny; upper lemma granulose to rugulose, as long as or up to 1 mm shorter than the spikelet, subacute to mucronulate.

Types. Ethiopia, Hildebrandt 337 (whereabouts uncertain); Somalia, Thomson (K) and Appleton (K).

Distribution: Pakistan (Sind); Kenya and Sudan to southern Arabia.

Brachiaria ovalis is a grass of very arid regions and is considered to be an excellent fodder grass.