Culms to 110 cm. Ligules 0.6-1 mm; blades 5-9 mm wide. Glumes exceeding the florets, linear to narrowly lanceolate; lemmas 0.9-1.2 mm, glabrous or sparsely sericeous along the veins. Caryopses 0.8-0.9 mm, without a ventral groove, sometimes coarsely rugose, apices broadly obtuse. 2n = unknown.

Leptochloa panicea subsp. mucronata grows in the southern portion of the United States, primarily from Kansas and Missouri through Texas and Louisiana.