Plant: Annual or short-lived perennial grass to 70 cm; culms often decumbent at base; blades glossy, 3-8 mm broad; inflorescence a spike 8-25 cm long; spikelets laterally compressed, 10 to 20-flowered; glumes 5-12 mm long, 1/3 to 2/3 as long as the spikelet; lemmas 4-7 mm long, distinctly awned.