annual; culms fascicled or solitary, erect or ascending, 1/3– 2/3 ft. long, glabrous, smooth, sheathed all along or nearly so, 2–3-noded; leaves glabrous, smooth; sheaths striate, herbaceous, sometimes purplish; ligules very short, truncate, often produced into an obtuse auricle on one side; blades linear, tapering to an acute point, 2 1/2–5 in. by 1 1/2–2 lin., flat or involute, rather firm, erect or spreading; spike straight or curved, 2 1/2 to more than 6 in. long, of 15–20 spikelets, rather stout and stiff; rhachis smooth, striate, deeply hollowed out; internodes (except the lowest) shorter than the spikelets; spikelets 4–6 lin. long, 3–5-flowered, very slightly gaping when in flower; rhachilla glabrous, much compressed; upper glume oblong-linear, obtuse or subobtuse, slightly exceeding or equalling the uppermost floret, very rigid, flat, glabrous, smooth, prominently 7-nerved; valves oblong, obtuse to acute, awnless or the uppermost finely mucronate, 2 1/2 lin. long, flat on the back, subchartaceous, whitish or light green, smooth, 5-nerved, tip hyaline; keels thinly crested or winged, scaberulous; anthers 1/2– 3/4 lin. long; grain elliptic-oblong, strongly compressed from the back, scarcely 2 lin. long. null