Culms 8-25(35) cm, erect or geniculate, glabrous. Sheaths glabrous, upper margins membranous, continuous with the sides of the ligules; ligules 1.4-2.5 mm, erose; blades 2-13 cm long, 1-3 mm wide, blades of basal leaves usually folded, cauline blades flat. Inflorescences racemes, 1.5-6 cm, not stiff, spikelets borne in 2 rows; pedicels 0.5-1 mm, appressed. Spikelets 8-15(22) mm, ovate, crowded, with (5)12-25 florets; rachillas with capitate hairs. Glumes glabrous, mostly smooth, keels sometimes scabridulous distally, apices obtuse to subacute; lower glumes 2.5-3 mm, 3-veined; upper glumes 3-4 mm, 3-5-veined; lemmas 3.5-4.5 mm, more or less cucullate, puberulent with capitate hairs, strongly keeled, keels sometimes scabridulous distally, apices subacute to obtuse, not or scarcely mucronate; anthers 0.8-1.4 mm. 2n = 14.

Desmazeria sicula used to be cultivated as an ornamental in the Flora region (Hitchcock 1951), but it is not included in contemporary treatments of ornamental grasses.