Japan Flora: Coarsely pubescent perennial; culms 10-30 cm. long, branching and long-creeping at base; leaf-blades flat, broadly lanceolate to narrowly ovate, 2-7 cm. long, 1-1.5 cm. wide, acuminate, slightly oblique and cuneate to obtusely rounded at base; ligules very short; sheaths short; panicles simple and spikelike, exserted, erect, linear or lanceolate, 6-12 cm. long, loosely and interruptedly racemose, the branches 6-10, very short, rarely to 15 mm. long, slender, densely flowered; spikelets short-pubescent, narrowly ovate, about 3 mm. long, acute, subsessile; first glume broadly lan­ceolate, obtuse, about half as long as the spikelet, with a straight, antrorsely scaberulous awn, the second narrowly ovate, about 2/3 as long as the spikelet, long-awned, 3-nerved; sterile lemma as long as the spikelet, broadly ovate, acute with a short awn, 5- to 7-nerved; fertile lemma pale, smooth, lus­trous, acute, about 2.7 mm. long. Aug.-Oct. Woods in lowlands. 

Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku, Kyushu; very com­mon and variable. Korea, China, India to s. Europe.

var. japonicus Steud.  Glabrescent. Nearly as common as the typical phase.

var. microphyllus (Honda) Ohwi. Plant smaller and less pilose; Jeaf-blades 1-3 cm. long; branches of the inflorescence very short with a few spikelets.