Plants annual. Culms 5–30(55) cm, erect. Sheaths of the flag leaves not inflated; auricles not developed; ligules 5–7 mm, acute; blades to 19 cm long, 5–7 mm wide, flat or folded. Panicles 1–12 cm long, 3.5–7 mm wide, narrowly cylindrical, tapering somewhat distally. Glumes 1.5–2.5 mm, scabrous, inflated, keels sometimes slightly ciliate, margins ciliate distally, apices abruptly truncate, mucronate to awned, awns to 0.6 mm, lower glumes pilose on the margins; lemmas about 2/3 as long as the glumes, pubescent; anthers 0.3–0.5 mm. 2n = 28.
Phleum paniculatum is native to dry habitats in southern and south-central Europe. In the Flora region, it is known only from old ballast dump records.