Plants annual. Culms 60-110 cm, erect or somewhat decumbent. Sheaths glabrous; ligules membranous, ciliolate; blades to 31 cm long, 4-10 mm wide, flat or folded, mostly or completely glabrous, adaxial surfaces sometimes with scattered pubescence at the base. Panicles 20-30 cm, open; branches 5-8 cm, capillary, strongly divergent; rames usually a triplet of spikelets. Sessile spikelets 8.1-10 mm; calluses about 7 mm, sharp; glumes smooth below, scabrous distally; lower glumes shortly awned or mucronate from the sinuses of the minutely bilobed apices; upper lemmas awned, awns 10.6-16 cm, geniculate, twisted below. Pedicellate spikelets 7.2-15 mm. 2n = unknown.

Chrysopogon pauciflorus is native, but infrequently encountered, in the southeastern United States, primarily in Florida; it also occurs in Cuba. It grows in flatwoods, abandoned fields, pinelands, marsh edges, and various disturbed sites.