Mission grass is a large, tough, perennial, bunched grass.
The grass is not creeping but forms a loose dump. The stems are slender and fairly straight, sometimes rooting at the lower nodes and are up to 3 m long. 5 to 26 cm long and 1.3 to 2.6 cm wide. Bristles are hairy on the lower half making them ideal for dispersal by wind, and on animals and vehicles. Flowering to seed maturity can occur in 14 days.