Plants usually densely cespitose, with caudices. Basal rosettes well-differentiated; blades 1-5 cm, ovate to lanceolate. Culms 5-45 cm tall, 0.2-0.8 mm thick, erect, often purplish; nodes glabrous or sparsely pubescent; internodes often ascending-pubescent below; fall phase branching extensively from the basal nodes, usually forming very dense cushions. Cauline leaves 3-5; sheaths mostly shorter than the internodes, often purplish, glabrous or sparsely pubescent, margins often sparsely ciliate; ligules 0.2-0.5 mm, of hairs, without adjacent pseudoligules; blades 2-5 cm long (rarely longer), 1-4 mm wide, flat or involute, rather firm, ascending, often purplish, usually glabrous on both surfaces, bases subcordate, often with a few long, stiff cilia, margins narrowly white, cartilaginous, and scabridulous, blades of the flag leaves only slightly shorter than those of the lowerleaves. Primary panicles 1.5-5 cm (seldom longer), nearly as wide as long, delicate, dense; branches numerous, flexuous, spreading, often purplish, glabrous or faintly scabridulous. Spikelets 1.1-1.5 mm long, 0.7-1 mm wide, broadly ellipsoid or obovoid, often purple-tinged, glabrous or puberulent, obtuse or subacute. Lower glumes approximately 1/3 as long as the spikelets, broadly acute or obtuse; upper glumes and lower lemmas subequal or the glumes slightly shorter than the lemmas; lower florets sterile; upper florets 0.9-1.2 mm, ellipsoid, apices exceeding the upper glumes and lower lemmas, subacute.

Dichanthelium chamaelonche grows in low, open, sandy, coastal pine woods, savannahs, and moist depressions in sand dunes. It is restricted to the southeastern United States.