Annual; culms 15-90 cm high, erect or geniculately ascending. Leaf-blades 5-15(-25) cm long, 2-5 mm wide. Inflorescence composed of 3-5(-8) simple or branched racemes arranged along a short common axis 14(-6.5) cm long; racemes 2.5-11.5 cm long, the spikelets ternate on a triquetrous, wingless rhachis (sometimes one spikelet arrested, occasionally the longest pedicel branched and bearing 2(3) spikelets); pedicels terete, smooth, with discoid or cupuliform tip, unequal in length and standing out from the rhachis at maturity. Spikelets elliptic, oblong-elliptic or oblong-obovate, 1.3-1.75mm long; lower glume 0; upper glume narrower than the spikelet and half to three-quarters (rarely more) as long, 3(-5)-nerved, with minutely clavate hairs between the nerves; lower lemma a little shorter than the spikelet, 5-7-nerved, pubescent between the nerves with minutely clavate hairs; fruit ellipsoid, apiculate, the tip exceeding the lower lemma, chestnut to brownish-black at maturity.

Fl. & Fr. Per.: July-August.

Type: India, Heyne (B, BM).

Distribution: Pakistan (N.W.F.P. & Kashmir); Nepal and India to Thailand: throughout Indonesia to the Philippines and New Guinea.

The clavate hairs of this species are much finer than those of Digitaria stricta, with a much smaller swelling at the tip. The loosely arranged spikelets and occasionally compound racemes are very characteristic and even if the clustering of the spikelets is a little confusing the species is quite unmistakable.