Plants annual. Culms 30–70 cm, erect or spreading; nodes 3–5, pubescent. Sheaths densely pubescent to pilose; auricles absent; ligules 2–3 mm, lanceolate, pubescent, obtuse, erose; blades 7–20 cm long, 3–7 mm wide, flat, usually pubescent to pilose, rarely glabrous. Panicles 8–15 cm, open, drooping; branches ascending to spreading. Spikelets 20–30 mm, elliptic to lanceolate, terete to moderately laterally compressed, with 4–7 florets. Glumes glabrous or hispidulous; lower glumes 6–9 mm, 1-veined; upper glumes 8–10.5 mm, 3-veined, usually acute, rarely mucronate; lemmas 9–15 mm, lanceolate, rounded over the midvein, glabrous, sometimes scabrous, apices subulate to acute, entire; awns 4–8 mm, straight, arising less than 1.5 mm below the lemma apices; anthers 3–5 mm. 2n = 28.
Bromus texensis grows in openings in brushy areas on rocky ground. It is rare, found only in Arizona, southern Texas, and northern Mexico.