Plants cespitose, not rhizomatous. Culms to 5 m, glabrous. Blades to 2 m long, 3-25 mm wide, flat or channeled, glaucous and scabrous. Panicles 20-90 cm, compact; primary branches 2-5 cm, considerably shorter than the supporting branches; rame internodes hirsute, hairs to 7 mm. Sessile spikelets 4-6 mm long, somewhat heteromorphic. Sessile spikelets: callus hairs to 2.5 mm, white to gray; glumes equal; lower glumes membranous, pubescent; upper glumes glabrous; lower lemmas oblong-elliptic, pubescent; upper lemmas oblong-elliptic, ciliate on the margins, acute to shortly awned; awns about 1.3 mm, not visible beyond the glumes; anthers 3. Pedicels shorter than the sessile spikelet. Pedicellate spikelets pilose on the glumes, hairs 4-9 mm. 2n = 20, 22, 40, 60.

Saccharum bengalense is native from Iran to northern India. It is sometimes cultivated as an ornamental in the Flora region.