The stems are sessile, slightly tilting forward because of the weight of the inflorescence, each made up of 3–4 internodes.

[citation needed] The plant was first described in 1808 by the German botanist Friedrich August Freiherr Marschall von Bieberstein as belonging to the taxon Agrostis holciformis.

Piptatherum holciforme grows in waste habitats, along waysides, and adapts well in moist, stony chalkstone soils in Mediterranean scrubland.

To what extent the cereal grass was cultivated in the past by indigenous peoples is now unclear, owing to the multiple varieties of millet and panic.

[2][3] In Israel, seedlings of hairy millet grass are sometimes used to reseed marginal land for pasture.