Plants perennial; cespitose. Culms 100-200 cm, stout, erect; nodes glabrous. Sheaths pubescent; ligules 1.9-2.2 mm, brown; blades 30-90 cm long, 1-3 cm wide, flat, glabrous, pubescent behind the ligules. Panicles terminal, with 10-20 racemosely arranged branches; branches 3-15 cm, spreading to diverging; branch axes 1-1.7 mm wide, winged, wings narrower than the central section, terminating in a spikelet. Spikelets 2.2-3.2 mm long, 1.8-2.4 mm wide, paired, appressed to or diverging from the branch axes, obovate, brown. Lower glumes absent; upper glumes and lower lemmas glabrous or variously short pubescent, 5-veined, margins entire; upper florets 2.5-2.7 mm, brown. 2n = 36, 40, 54, 80.

Paspalum virgatum is native from Mexico to South America. It has been introduced to the southeastern United States, where it grows primarily in disturbed areas and cultivated fields.