Plants perennial. Culms 20-150 cm, erect. Sheaths smooth, reddish; ligules 0.5-0.8 mm, cilia 0.2-0.5 mm; blades 10-15 cm long, 2-7 mm wide, flat or folded, glabrous or pubescent. Rames 3-7 cm, secund, with 12-22, brown to reddish-brown, sessile-pedicellate spikelet pairs. Homogamous spikelets 6-10 mm. Heterogamous spikelets: sessile spikelets 5-10 mm, brown, awned; calluses 1.8-2 mm, strigose; awns 6-10 cm; pedicellate spikelets 6-10 mm, unawned; glumes ovate-lanceolate, glabrous or with papillose-based hairs distally, without glandular pits, greenish to purplish-brown, becoming stramineous when dry. 2n = 40, 50, 60.

Heteropogon contortus is a valuable forage grass if continuously grazed so as to prevent the calluses from developing. It is also considered a weed, being able to establish itself in newly disturbed and poor soils.