This native grass is a summer annual that consists of a small tuft of leafy culms about 6-18" tall. The culms are terete, hairless, and light green, light tan, or light purple; they are often decumbent at the base and sparingly branched. At maturity, each culm has 1-3 alternate leaves along its length (excluding withered lower leaves). The blades of these leaves are up to 8" long and 2.0 mm. across; they are light green, hairless, and somewhat involute (curving inward along the midrib). Each leaf blade is ascending or erect near the base, curving outward from the culm; each blade has a very slender tip. The leaf sheaths are light green, finely veined, and hairless; they become purplish/reddish and somewhat loose with age. The ligules are membranous, while the nodes are glabrous and slightly swollen. Each culm terminates in a narrow panicle of spikelets up to 6" long and 1½" across. The central axis (rachis) of this inflorescence and its branches are light green and rough-textured; the branches are up to 3" long, straight, and erect to slightly spreading. The spikelets are evenly spaced and appressed along the length of each branch. Each spikelet is 11-13 mm. long, 1.5-2.0 mm. across, and somewhat flattened; it has a pair of glumes and 5-9 lemmas in 2 columnar ranks. Each spikelet has a short pedicel, or it is sessile. The glumes are unequal in size