Plants from small caudices. Culms slender, wiry, erect, densely crisp-puberulent. Basal blades usually shorter than 3 cm, to 6 mm wide. Cauline blades 5-8 cm long, 5-10 mm wide, linear-lanceolate, thick, often yellowish-green, bases symmetrical. Spikelets 2.2-2.7 mm. Lower glumes 1/5-1/4 the length of the spikelets; lower lemmas pointed.
Dichanthelium commutatum subsp. ashei grows in open woodlands. It sometimes resembles, and may hybridize with, D. dichotomum.