Japan Flora: Weedy annual; culms erect, glabrous, branching at base, 20-70 cm. long; leaf-blades linear to broadly so, 5-20 cm. long, 5-15 (rarely to 20) mm. wide, glabrous, flat，the sheaths and ligules ciliate; panicles cylindric, terete, spikelike, nearly erect, 2-5 cm. long, pale green, sometimes purpurascent，the axis spread­ing-hairy, the bristles numerous, densely arranged, spreading, short, scabrous, 6-8 mm. long; spikelets about 2 mm. long, ovate, obtuse; first glume 2/5-1/3 as long as the spikelet, the second nearly as long, ovate, obtuse, 5-nerved; sterile lemma similar, slightly longer than the second glume, the fertile lemma ovate-elliptic, as long as the sterile, obtuse, minutely rugulose; anthers dark brown. Aug.-Nov. Waste grounds and cultivated fields; Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku, Kyushu; very common.      Widesjwead in temperate and subtropical regions.

var. pachystachys (Fr. & Sav.) Makino & Nemoto. A shorter and more branched annual; blades slightly thicker; panicles 1-4 cm. long; spikelets and bristles very dense and numerous, the latter rarely purpurascent; anthers yellowish brown. Grassy places near seashores. Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku, Kyushu; very common.