Culms 5–25 cm high. Leaves glabrous; blade inrolled, to 4 cm long and 1 mm wide; ligule to 4 mm long. Panicle remaining dense and spike-like, to 5 cm long, 2–8 mm wide. Spikelets 2.5–3.5 mm long; glumes equal, acute; lemmas slightly shorter than glumes, glabrous except for short callus hairs, minutely scabrous; awn present on both lemmas, inserted about one-third from base, c. 3 mm long. Flowers Jul–Sep.
LoM, MuM, Wim, GleP, VVP, GipP, OtP, WaP, Gold, CVU, GGr, DunT, NIS, EGL, EGU, WPro, HSF, HNF, Strz, MonT, VAlp. Also naturalised in WA, NSW, Tas., the Americas, New Zealand. Indigenous to Europe where widespread. An occasional weed usually of sandy soils mostly in the southern half of the State, often near-coastal, but occasionally extending to montane or subalpine sites (e.g. Baw Baws, Strathbogie Ranges, Gelantipy area).
