Annual; culms solitary or few together, 4-10 dm, scaberulous; lvs usually glabrous beneath, scabrous above, 3-10 mm wide; spike 1-2(-4) dm with scabrous margins; spikelets 4-8-fld; glume firm, straight, strongly veined, equaling or surpassing the uppermost lemma, (12-)15-25 mm; lemmas obtuse, with an awn to 17 mm, or sometimes awnless, the lower lemmas in the spikelet 5-8.5 mm; paleas shorter than the lemmas, grain 2-3 times as long as thick; 2n=14. Probably native to the Mediterranean region, now widespread as a weed and occasionally found throughout most of our range.
Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.
