Glumes equal or subequal; lower glumes 3-6 mm; upper glumes 4-7 mm; lemmas 3-8 mm, sparsely appressed-pubescent; central awns 3-6 mm; lateral awns about 1 mm. Caryopses 2-6 mm.

Infrequent to frequent in the southern half of the state. It is usually a common plant where it is found. It prefers hard, white clay soil in abandoned and fallow fields, on washed slopes, and along clayey roadsides. All the species of this genus, when found in habitats similar to those just mentioned, are known in Indiana as poverty grasses. This species is often confused with Aristida longespica from which it may be separated by its dichotomously branched culms, its shorter terminal panicles, its tighter second glume, the coiled central awn, and its straight lateral awns being 1 mm long. In the other species the glumes are usually much looser and the lateral awns of the lemma are much longer, diverging, or widely spreading. This species was reported from Marshall County by Clark but there is no verifying specimen.