Plants perennial; cespitose. Culms 40-120 cm tall, 2-3 mm thick, decumbent to erect, branching from the base and the middle nodes; nodes pilose, hairs spreading; internodes hirsute, hairs papillose-based. Sheaths usually shorter than the internodes, hirsute, lower sheaths more so than those above, hairs papillose-based; collars densely pilose; ligules 0.5-4 mm; blades 16-55 cm long, 0.5-14 mm wide, erect to ascending, abaxial surfaces hirsute, hairs papillose-based, adaxial surfaces densely pilose, midveins prominent and whitish, bases truncate, margins ciliate basally, apices attenuate. Terminal panicles 7-35 cm long, 5-23 cm wide, about 1/2 as wide as long, shortly exserted or partially included, lax, open; axillary panicles smaller, included basally; primary branches diverging, lower branches solitary, upper branches solitary to subverticillate;secondary branching primarily in the distal 1/3; pedicels 1-4 mm, clavate, spreading to appressed. Spikelets 2.6-3.4 mm long, 0.9-1.2 mm wide, ovoid, glabrous. Lower glumes 1.4-1.7 mm, to 1/2 as long as the spikelets, acute, 5-7-veined; upper glumes and lower lemmas similar, exceeding the upper florets by 0.7-0.9 mm, 9-13-veined; lower florets sterile; lower paleas 0.5-1.3 mm; upper florets 1.7-2.3 mm long, 0.8-1.1 mm wide, smooth, ovoid. 2n = unknown.
Panicum ghiesbreghtii grows in low, moist ground, wet thickets, and savannahs, from southern Texas through Mexico, Central America, Cuba, and the West Indies to northern South America.