Densely tufted perennial with erect 34-noded culms up to 40 cm high; nodes black and prominent. Leaf-blades 2-10 cm long, 1-2.5 mm wide, acute or obtuse; sheaths very strongly flabellate at the base of the culm. Spikes exserted, paired, dorsally adpressed, rarely separating at maturity, 2-8 cm long, pallid or purple-tinged. Spikelets 4-6-flowered, all florets awned, the lowest 1-3 fertile; glumes dissimilar, the lower ovate-lanceolate, 2-3 mm long, acuminate, the upper ovate or elliptic-oblong, 3-4 mm long, abruptly acute, obtuse or truncate with the nerve excurrent; lowest lemma ovate-elliptic, 2.511 mm long, with long spreading cilia on the lateral nerves and keel and with an awn 8-10 mm long; upper 2-3 florets sterile and reduced to glabrous lemmas. Grain of lowest floret ovate-oblong.

Fl. & Fr. Per March-September.

Type: Tunisia, Desfontaines (P).

Distribution: Pakistan (Sind, Baluchistan, Punjab, N.W.F.P., Gilgit & Kashmir); tropical Africa eastwards to India and westwards to North Africa and the Canary Islands.

A common grass of desert areas and dry mountain slopes,