Tufted perennial, culms erect, to 80 cm high. Leaf-blades flat, to 15 cm long and 4 mm wide, minutely scabrous or hairy on the upper surface; ligules blunt, 0.5–1.5 mm long. Panicle spike-like, erect or slightly curved, one-sided, to 8 cm long. Spikelets in dense clusters with 2–5 sterile and fertile spikelets each per cluster; sterile spikelets ovate, flattened, 4–6 mm long, each with 6–18 stiff, narrow, acuminate bracts, 2–5 mm long; fertile spikelets 2–5-flowered, 3–6 mm long; glumes subequal, acuminate, 3–5 mm long; lemmas oblong, 3–4 mm long, scabrous toward apex, usually with a short (to 1 mm) apical awn. Flowers Oct.–Feb.
MuM, VVP, VRiv, GipP, OtP, WaP, Gold, CVU, DunT, NIS, EGL, HSF, HNF, OtR, Strz, MonT, VAlp. Also naturalised WA, SA, NSW, ACT, Tas. Indigenous in the Mediterranean region. In Victoria, an occasional weed of pasture, lawns and roadsides in cooler districts (e.g. Portland, Lome, Mt Dandenong, Neerim, Kiewa Valley, Orbost) with an isolated occurrence near Mildura in the north-west, occasionally invading native vegetation.
