Culms 9-75 cm. Blades 1-5(8) mm wide. Panicles 1-9 mm long, 3-6 mm wide. Spikelets usually not purplish-tinged; glumes 1.8-3 mm; awns not exceeding the lemmas or exceeding them by less than 1 mm; anthers 0.5-0.9 mm.

Alopecurus aequalis var. aequalis is the widespread variety in the Flora region. It is listed as threatened in the state of Connecticut.