Plants perennial; cespitose, with a knotty base composed of very short (less than 1 cm) rhizomes. Culms 50-220 cm, erect; nodes glabrous or pubescent. Sheaths glabrous or pubescent; ligules 1-4(7.7) mm; blades 12-60 cm long, 2-12 mm wide, flat, mostly glabrous, a few long hairs near the base of the adaxial surface. Panicles terminal, with (4)10-30 racemosely arranged branches; branches 1.2-11.5 cm, divergent; branch axes 0.5-1.1 mm wide, winged, glabrous, margins scabrous, terminating in a spikelet. Spikelets 1.8-2.8 mm long, 1.1-1.5 mm wide, paired, appressed to the branch axes, elliptic to slightly obovate, stramineous (rarely purple). Lower glumes absent; upper glumes and lower lemmas 3-veined, margins pilose; upper florets stramineous. Caryopses 1.2-1.7 mm, white. 2n = 40.
Paspalum urvillei has been introduced to the United States from South America. In the Flora region it grows in disturbed, moist to wet areas, primarily in the southeastern United States.