Bull. Div. Agrostol. U.S.D.A. xxiv. 26. (1901).

Plants erect, to about 70 cm tall, much branched below. Culms striate, cylindrical, smooth, glabrous, rooting at the lower nodes; nodes brown, smooth. Leaf sheaths loose, longer than the internodes, lower sheaths compressed, smooth or slightly rough; ligules 1-2 mm long, fimbriate; blades thin,flat,  linear-lanceolate, 10-20 cm long, 5-8 mm wide, both surfaces slightly scabrous or nearly smooth, margins scabrous. Panicles 10-20 cm long, green, central axes longer than the longest branches, slsmooth or slightly rough distally, striate; branches 2-5 cm long, erect, alternate, scabrous, spikelet-bearing to the base, spikelets pedicellate, pedicels about 1 mm long, scabrous. Spikelets about 5 mm long, ovate-lanceolate, with 2-4 florets; glumes 1-veined, unequal, scabrous over the keels; lower glumes about 1 mm long, narrowly triangular lanceolate, acute; upper glumes about 2 mm long, rhomboidal with triangular acute tips; lemmas about 3 mm long, broadly ovate (when spread), obtuse, unawned, mostly glabrous, keels scabrous, 3-veined, midveins prominent, percurrent, latera veins marginal, extending about 2/3 the length of the lemmas, slightly pilose; pales equalling the lemmas, lanceolate-spathulate, truncate, tips slightly denticulate, margins sparingly pilose near the base.

Dinebra aquatica grows in wet places.