Tufted annual; culms erect, 5-15 cm high. Leaf-blades tightly inrolled, curved, up to 4 cm long and 1 mm wide. Panicle up to 4 cm long, narrow, few-flowered, the branches erect. Spikelets green or tinged with purple; glumes very unequal; lower glume lanceolate, 4.5-5.5 mm long, bifid at the apex with an awn up to 1 mm long in the sinus; upper glume narrowly lanceolate, 95-11 mm long, bifid at the apex with an awn up to 1.5 mm long in the sinus; lemma 2.5-3.5 mm long, terete, convolute, hispidulous, articulated at the summit; callus 0.6 mm long, oblong, 2-toothed; column up to 20 mm long, strongly twisted; central branch of the awn up to 6 cm long; lateral branches about two-thirds the length of the central.

Fl. & Fr. Per.: June-September.

Type: Pakistan, J.E. Stocks 1187(K).

Distribution: Known only from Pakistan (Sind), but likely to occur in North west India.

Aristida hystricula is a dwarf semi-desert grass. The forked callus is unique among Pakistani species of Aristida.