Habit

Annuals or perennials; culms loosely tufted, subcoriaceous, erect or ascending, 3-10 dm tall, often many-branched, glabrous. 

Leaves

Sheaths 7-10(-20) cm long, the lower ones sometimes papillose-pilose; ligule densely ciliate, ca. 1 mm long; blades usually glaucous, flat or folded, 5-30 cm long, 2-10 mm wide, striate, upper surface scaberulous, lower surface glabrous. 

Flowers

Panicles fluffy, glossy, pink or purple, color fading with age, ovoid to oblong, 5-20 cm long, branches ascending, 3-9 cm long, scaberulous, pedicels usually pilose in upper part; spikelets ovate, 2.5-8.5 mm long, villous, the hairs extending 1-4 mm beyond apex; first glume narrowly oblong, 0.3-3.5 mm long, pilose, separated from second glume by an internode 0.1-1.2 mm long, second glume chartaceous, conspicuously gibbous, tapering to a glabrous membranous beak 1/4-1/2 the length of the glume, emarginate, mucronate, or with an inconspicuous awn up to 7(-10) mm long; first lemma narrower and less gibbous than second glume, first palea ciliate on the keel; second lemma ca. 2.5 mm long, short-stipitate, second palea similar to second lemma but thinner, pale green to white, smooth, glossy, 1.6-1.8 mm long, faintly 2-nerved, apex obtuse, awnless. 

Fruit

Caryopsis pale brown, narrowly ovoid, 1.2-1.5 mm long, smooth. 

Chromosomes

2n = 18, 36