They are 70–176 μm in diameter, globose to pear-shaped, and develop superficially or partly submerged.

[1] Sexual stage: Perithecia are rare in nature, they occur in barley straw in the autumn.

Acsi are club-shaped or cylindrical, clearly bitunicate, and rounded at the apex, with a short stalk at the base.

Conidia may be formed when infected barley pieces as placed on water agar and incubated under diurnal light conditions followed by a period of chilling.

Severe seedling infection can cause stunting and post-emergence death, but symptoms are not usually apparent until later, when long, chlorotic or yellow stripes on leaves and sheaths appear.

Dark brown streaks develop later in the stripes, which eventually dry out and cause leaf shedding.

[citation needed] Considerable variation in pathogenicity between isolates exists, but no formal physiologic races have been recognized.

Perithecia are uncommon, but over-wintering sclerotia on crop debris have been reported from Russia.