Japan Flora: Green, soft, glabrous annual or short­lived perennial; culms smooth, slender, 30-80 cm. long, weak; leaf-blades flat, flaccid, 10-15 cm. long, 1.5-3 mm. wide, nearly smooth; sheaths slightly compressed, nearly smooth; ligules hyaline; panicles 10-20 cm. long, narrowly ovate, nodding, green, the branches geminate, scabrous, slender, spreading; spikelets ovate, compressed, 3- to 5-flowered, 3-5 mm. long; glumes lanceolate, acute, unequal, 1- to 3-nerved, with scabrous keel, the lower 1.5 mm., the upper 2.5 mm. long; lemmas nar­rowly ovate, about 2.5 mm. long, appressed-pubescent on the sides below and on the nerves, obtuse. May-July. Shaded places in lowlands and low mountains.

Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku, Kyushu; very common.  Formosa, Korea, and China. 

var. submoniliformis Makino. Tama-mizo-ichigo-tsunagi. A few basal internodes of culms bulbously thickened. Oc­curs less frequently with the typical phase.