Plants perennial; not rhizomatous. Culms 60-120 cm, erect or spreading; nodes 4-6, pubescent or puberulent; internodes mostly glabrous, sometimes pubescent to puberulent just below the nodes. Sheaths glabrous or pilose, often pilose near the auricles; auricles usually present on the lower leaves, rarely absent; ligules to 1.5 mm, usually pubescent, sometimes glabrous, truncate to obtuse, laciniate, ciliolate; blades 10-25 cm long, 3-9 mm wide, flat, glabrous, pilose on the margins or throughout. Panicles 10-20 cm, open, usually nodding; branches ascending to spreading or reflexed. Spikelets 15-35 mm, elliptic to lanceolate, terete to moderately laterally compressed, with 4-10 florets. Glumes usually pubescent, rarely glabrous, sometimes scabrous, margins often bronze-tinged; lower glumes 4-7 mm, 3-veined; upper glumes 6.5-9 mm, (3)5-veined; lemmas 10-13 mm, elliptic to lanceolate, rounded over the midvein, backs usually pubescent, sometimes glabrous distally, margins often bronze-tinged, pubescent nearly throughout, apices acute to obtuse, entire, rarely slightly emarginate, lobes shorter than 1 mm; awns 3-5 mm, straight, arising less than 1.5 mm below the lemma apices; anthers 3.5-5 mm. 2n = 14.

Bromus pseudolaevipes grows in dry, shaded or semishaded sites in the chaparral, coastal sage scrub, and woodland-savannah zones, from near sea level to about 900 m, in central and southern California.