Annual; culms 12-35 cm high. Leaf-blades 5-7 cm long, 3.5-5 mm wide. Panicle cylindrical, 5-9 cm long, the rhachis flexuous and scabrid; involucre elongate, 15-27 mm long; inner bristles greatly exceeding the spikelets, flattened and connate only at the base, forming a shallow oval or diamond-shaped disc, densely ciliate below, the outer surface with one or two shallow grooves, filiform and flexuous above, antrorsely scaberulous; outer bristles filiform. Spikelets 1 or 2 per burr, about 4.3 mm long, acutely lanceolate; lower glume short, up to 0.8 mm long, or absent; upper glume a little shorter than the spikelet.

Type: “Crescit in Senegambia,” Kunth (?B).

Distribution: Pakistan (Sind); northern Africa, Arabia and India.

Cenchrus prieurii is an excellent fodder grass in semi-desert regions.