Japan Flora: Annual; culms erect or from ascending base, cespitose or solitary, 7-40 cm. long; leaf-blades linear, the margins often slightly re­curved, 4-7 cm. long, 3-5 mm. wide; ligules ovate, obtuse, hyaline, glabrous, 1-2.5 mm. long; sheaths rather short, gla­brous or sparsely long-hairy, smooth; inflorescence terminal and from axils of upper leaves; racemes 1-5, commonly 2 or 3, erect, sessile, 2-8 cm. long, pale green to pale brown; rachis not jointed; spikelets compressed, appressed to the rachis, nearly sessile, lanceolate, acute, 2.5-4 mm. long, with a tuft of very short hairs at base; first glume linear-lanceolate, mem­branous, with a scabrous, purplish keel, the second as long, lanceolate; fertile lemma hyaline, about 2/3 as long as the glumes, 2-toothed, 1-nerved, the awn between the teeth, 2-10 mm. long, geniculate and twisted, minutely scabrous. Aug.-Oct. Wet places in lowlands.

Hokkaido, Honshu, Shi­koku, Kyushu; common. India, Malaysia, and Australia.

subvar. microchaeta Hack. Awnless.  Occurs with the species.