Sw., Fl. Ind. Occ. 203. 1797 Annual, 10-100 cm tall; culms +/- erect or decumbent at base. Sheaths flattened, keeled, mostly longer than the internodes, glabrous; blades 4-25 cm long, 3-7 mm wide, mostly glabrous to scaberulous, the margins scabrid. Inflorescences terminal, of several digitate spikes 3-9 cm long; spikelets 3-3.5 mm long, with 1 fertile floret and a rudiment of several sterile lemmas, disarticulating below the fertile lemma; glumes scabrous on the keel, unequal, the second glume with a short awn; fertile floret 3-3.5 mm long, bearded on margins below awn, the awn on the lemma scabrid, to 1 cm long; rudiment stout, 2-2.5 mm long, with an awn 3-7 mm long. Fruits not seen. Kenoyer 119. Collected once by Kenoyer; not seen recently but to be expected in clearings. Apparently flowering principally in the dry season.