Japan Flora: Slender, erect annual; culms 10-40 cm. long, glabrous, branched above and near base; leaf-blades soft, thin, flat, broadly linear or linear-oblong, 2-4 cm. long, 2-5 mm. wide, abruptly acute, nearly glabrous, rounded at base; ligules very short; sheaths compressed and keeled, glabrous, short; racemes simple, peduncled, terminal and axillary from upper culm-nodes, scarcely exserted from the sheathed spathe, linear, 1-2 cm. long, the joints thickened gradually toward the apex; pedicels slender; sessile spikelets lanceolate, about 3 mm. long, the first glume lanceolate; fertile lemma hyaline, bifid, awned from the sinus, the awn perfect, about 8 mm. long, delicate, geniculate, the pedicellate spikelet reduced to an awn about 3 mm. long. Aug.-Nov. Wet places.

Honshu, Shikoku, Kyushu; common. Widespread in warm-temperate to tropical regions.