Plants annual, tufted. Culms 9-150 cm, clustered or solitary. Sheaths smooth, glabrous; ligules 2.5-5(10) mm, obtuse, entire; blades 3-13.5(23) cm long, 2.5-14 mm wide, scabrous. Panicles 1-4(8) cm long, 0.7-2 cm wide, ovoid to almost globose, unilateral. Spikelets 7-14 mm; subsessile or shortly pedicellate, pedicels to 1.6 mm. Sterile spikelets with 6-18 florets; glumes and lemmas similar, subulate to linear-lanceolate, glabrous, sometimes scabridulous, awned, awns to 8 mm. Fertile spikelets with 1-5 florets, glumes and lemmas dissimilar; glumes 5.5-12 mm long, 0.4-0.9 mm wide, narrowly lanceolate, laterally compressed, hyaline, glabrous, 1-veined, keeled, awned, awns 0.5-2.2 mm; rachilla internodes 0.9-1.3 mm; lemmas 4-7 mm, slightly dorsally compressed, chartaceous or coriaceous, not keeled, lower 1/2 smooth, glabrous, distal 1/2 villous or scabrid, apices hyaline, ciliolate, entire or bidentate, awned, awns 5-18(25) mm; anthers 1-4 mm. 2n = 14.

Cynosurus echinatus is native to southern Europe. It is now established in North America, South America, and Australia. It usually grows in dry open habitats but has also been found at the edge of salt marshes.