A stiff plant. The inflorescence is branched throughout its length and spikelets are slender and more open than the similar Catapodium marinum.

It is a species of dry rocky outcrops and walls, avoiding acid rock. It may be found in other dry areas alongside roads etc.

Summer and autumn, although the dead plant often persists.

Annual.

Widespread in Britain, but sometimes local away from the coast.

Occasional in Leicestershire and Rutland. In the 1979 Flora survey of Leicestershire it was found in 47 of the 617 tetrads.