Annual, tufted, often forming large clump. Culms erect or geniculately ascending, sometimes branching from lower nodes, 25–50 cm tall, 3–4-noded. Leaf sheaths lax, smooth, glabrous, upper sheaths inflated; leaf blades soft, glaucous, 3–12 cm, 3–7 mm wide, abaxial surface smooth, adaxial surface scaberulous; ligule 2–5 mm. Panicle cylindrical, 3–10 cm, yellow-green. Spikelets ovate-oblong, 4.8–7 mm; glumes herbaceous, smooth, keels wingless, stiffly ciliate, lateral veins pubescent near base or glabrous, margins connate only at extreme base, apices subacute; lemma slightly longer than glumes, herbaceous, margins connate in lower 2/5, awned from near base, apex subacute; awn exserted 5–8 mm from spikelet, weakly geniculate, column not twisted. Anthers white, ca. 1 mm. Fl. and fr. Feb–May.

Wet places; below 2000 m. Anhui, Fujian, Guangdong, Guizhou, Henan, Hubei, Jiangsu, Shaanxi, Sichuan, Yunnan, Zhejiang [Japan, Korea].