Plants cespitose, with few culms. Basal rosettes well-differentiated; blades numerous, to 15 cm, lowest blades ovate, upper blades lanceolate, grading into the cauline blades. Culms 30-75 cm, nearly erect, stiff, slightly fleshy or thickened; nodes glabrous, often with a constricted, yellowish ring; internodes glabrous; fall phase with few, long, suberect branches, sparingly rebranched, branches arising mostly from near the base. Cauline leaves 4-7; sheaths shorter than the internodes, mostly glabrous, margins ciliate; ligules 0.2-0.5 mm; blades 5-10 cm long, 5-10 mm wide, stiffly ascending, thick, glabrous, veins evident, bases cordate, with papillose-based cilia, margins whitish, cartilaginous. Primary panicles 5-14 cm, 1/2-2/3 as wide as long, exserted. Spikelets 1-1.4 mm, broadly obovoid-spherical, puberulent to subglabrous. Lower glumes 0.2-0.4 mm, acute, upper florets 0.8-1.1 mm, broadly ellipsoid, minutely umbonate. 2n = unknown.

Dichanthelium erectifolium grows in sand and peat in wet pinelands, bogs, and the shores of ponds. Its range extends from the southeastern Flora region into the Caribbean.