A wiry perennial with long, slender, creeping rhizomes and stolons.  Leaves are generally smooth, with a conspicuous ring of white hairs at the junction of blade and sheath.  Decumbent stems typically have papery leaf sheaths at each node.  Decumbent stems spread laterally over the soil surface, rooting freely at lower nodes.  Flowering stems are upright and bear a terminal group of 3 to 7 spike-like branches, usually originating in a single whorl on the ends of stems (in a configuration resembling fingers on a hand).  Individual spikes are 1 to 2 inches long and bear 2 rows of sessile spikelets along one side of a somewhat flattened rachis.

Bermuda grass was probably introduced from Africa.  It is widely established in warmer regions of the West and Southwest, where it is frequently used as a pasture or lawn grass.  More recently it has become established in colder regions of the West, posing a serious threat to crop production and turf management.  Bermuda grass is sometimes confused with large crabgrass (Digitaria sanguinalis (L.) Scop.) because of a superficial resemblance between inflorescences, and both have prostrate spreading stems that may root at nodes.  Crabgrass spikelets are attached to the rachis by an obvious short pedicel.