Densely caespitose annual or short-lived perennial, up to 80 cm high. Leaf-blades setaceous, 6-20 cm long, scaberulous beneath, scabrid or hirtellous above. Panicle 10-15 cm long, contracted or sometimes effuse. Spikelets pallid or purplish; glumes densely pilose or glabrous only at the tip, unequal to subequal, the lower 6-11 mm long, the upper 10-13 mm long; lemma 3.5-4 mm long, conspicuously tuberculate above, gradually passing into the awn; callus 0.5-0.75 mm long, acute, bearded with a short tuft of hair near the base of the callus and a long fringe at the base of the lemma; column of awn 7-10 mm long, plumose (sometimes rather sparsely so) in the upper half, without a distinct tuft at the summit; central branch of the awn 3.5-5.5 cm long, plumose throughout but with an excurrent naked tip; lateral branches naked, ± 1 cm long.

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

Type: Arabia, Schimper 165 (K).

Distribution: Pakistan (Sind, Baluchistan, Punjab & N.W.F.P.); tropical and South Africa; through Arabia to India.