Tufted annual. Culms 20-100 cm high. Panicle up to 9 cm long and 2 cm wide, dense, oblong, tapering to a narrow base; spikelets falling from the inflorescence in groups of 6 or 7, with 5 or 6 sterile spikelets clustered about a single fertile spikelet. Glumes of fertile spikelets 5.5-8.2 mm long, acuminate to subulate, winged in the upper portion, the wing with a tooth-like projection near the middle; sterile florets of the fertile spikelet obsolete, represented only by knob-like projections at the base of the fertile floret; fertile floret 2.5-3.5 mm long, indurated, light-coloured, shining, glabrous or with a few short hairs near the apex.

Fl. & Fr. Per.: February or April-June.

Type: “Habitat in Oriente”. P. Forsskal (LINN).

Distribution: Europe, Mediterranean region and Southwest Asia; elsewhere as an introduction.

Stewart in his Annotated Catalogue (1972) also cites; Quetta: Harbhajan Singh (DD) and Lahore: J. L. Stewart. As this species is so distinctive these specimens are probably correctly cited. The species is, however, a very rare casual in Pakistan.