Plants perennial; stoloniferous, straggling. Culms to 5 m long, long-decumbent and rooting at the lower nodes, vertical portion 90-200(300) cm; nodes villous. Lower sheaths with papillose-based hairs, these more dense distally, margins ciliate; collars pubescent; ligules 1-1.5 mm; blades 7.5-35 cm long, 4-20 mm wide, glabrous or sparsely pilose on both surfaces, margins scabrous. Panicles 10-25 cm long, 5-10 cm wide, pyramidal, with 10-30 spikelike branches in more than 2 ranks; primary branches 2.5-8 cm long, 0.4-0.9 mm wide, ascending to divergent, axils pubescent, axes flat, glabrous or with a few papillose-based hairs, secondary branches present or absent; pedicels shorter than the spikelets, scabrous, sometimes with hairs. Spikelets 2.6-3.5 mm long, 1-1.4 mm wide, mostly in pairs, in 2-4 rows, appressed to the branches, purplish to green. Glumes scarcely separate, rachilla internodes short not pronounced; lower glumes 0.6-1.1 mm, 1/5-1/3 as long as the spikelets, glabrous, 0-1(3)-veined; upper glumes 2.6-3.5 mm, glabrous, 5-(7)-veined, without cross venation; lower florets staminate; lower lemmas 2.6-3.3 mm, glabrous, 5-veined, without cross venation; upper lemmas 2.3-2.8 mm long, 1-1.3 mm wide, apices rounded, mucronate; anthers 1-1.5 mm. Caryopses 1.8-2 mm. 2n = 18, 36.

An African species, Urochloa mutica is grown as a forage crop throughout the tropics, but it tends to become weedy. It grows on moist, disturbed soils and is established in the southeastern United States.