Tufted annual; culms 2-15 cm high. Leaf-blades linear, acuminate, 0.5-3 cm long, 0.5-0.8 mm wide (up to 2 mm when flat). Panicle contracted, narrow, 1-3 cm long, 0.5-1 cm wide. Spikelets 5-7 mm tong, 6-8-flowered; glumes lanceolate, acuminate, the lower 5-7-nerved, 4.5-6.5 mm long, the upper 5-nerved, 5-7 mm long; lowest lemma 9-nerved, 2.5-4 mm long, broadly elliptical, deeply 2-lobed, the lobes narrowly triangular, 1-2 mm long; palea 2-3.2 mm long spathulate, narrowly obtuse, barely exceeding the base of the lemma lobes, at best reaching the middle of the lobes; anthers 0.2-0.4 mm long. Grain obovoid, 1 mm long.

Fl. & Fr. Per.: February-May; up to July in the mountains.

Type: Arabia, Schimper 391 (B).

Distribution: Pakistan (Baluchistan, Punjab, N.W.F.P. & Kashmir); from greece and Libya eastwards through Arabia to Central Asia.