Loosely tufted annual; culms 6-25 cm high, erect or geniculately ascending. Leaf-blades 0.3-4 cm long, 1-2 cm wide, flat or convolute, pubescent; sheaths inflated, retrorsely hairy. Panicle ovoid to cylindrical, ± dense, 1.5-4 cm long. Spikelets 2-flowered, 4-5.5 mm long excluding the awns; glumes unequal, acute, the lower narrowly lanceolate, 2.8-4.4 mm long, 1-nerved, the upper elliptic; lemma elliptic, 2.4-3.7 mm long excluding the 1.5-3 mm long setae; awn 6.5-8.5 mm long.

Fl. & Fr. Per.: March-May.

Type: Spain, Loefling (LINN).

Distribution: Pakistan (Baluchistan & Kashmir); Mediterranean region and southern Europe eastwards to Northwest India.

This, the most widespread species in the genus, has a curiously disjunct distribution in Pakistan possibly the result of under collection. 1800-2400 m.