Loosely caespitose annual; culms up to 40(60) cm tall, erect or ascending, branched or unbranched, glabrous at the nodes, with or without glandular pits below the nodes, these often coalescent into a ring; leaf sheaths glabrous, eglandular; ligule a line of hairs; leaf laminas 3–13 cm × 2.5–3.5 mm, linear, flat or involute, glabrous, eglandular. Panicle 7–16 cm long, oblong to ovate-oblong, open, stiffly branched, the spikelets evenly distributed on pedicels 1–3 mm long, these with one or two crateriform glands, the primary branches not in whorls, terminating in a fertile spikelet, glabrous in the axils. Spikelets 5–7(15) × 1.5–1.8 mm, narrowly oblong to linear, laterally compressed, 9–12(25)-flowered, the lemmas disarticulating from below upwards, the rhachilla persistent; glumes unequal, keeled, lanceolate in profile, scaberulous on the keel, eglandular, acute at the apex, the inferior 0.8–1.5 mm long, reaching to between 1/2 and 3/4 the way along the adjacent lemma, the superior 1.3–2.1 mm long, reaching to about the middle of the adjacent lemma; lemmas 1.7–2.3 mm long, keeled, oblong-lanceolate in profile, chartaceous with distinct lateral nerves, diverging from the rhachilla at less than 45°, those in opposite rows scarcely imbricate, the rhachilla ± visible between them, green to leaden-grey or reddish, scaberulous on the keel, eglandular, obtuse at the apex; palea persistent, glabrous on the flanks, the keels slender, wingless, scaberulous; anthers 3, 0.2–0.3 mm long. Caryopsis 0.6–1 mm long, elliptic-oblong, very rarely shorter and broader. Flowering in Spring.

A common weed of cultivated areas.