Annuals or perennials. Leaves: lamina linear. Inflorescence of solitary or digitate racemes, each raceme bearing paired spikelets. Sessile spikelet male or barren and awnless, otherwise resembling the pedicellate.
Pedicellate spikelet bisexual with pungent
callus; lower glume grey-brown, convex on the back; lower
floret reduced to a hyaline lemma; upper lemma entire, with a
hairy awn from the apex.
The genus is unusual in that the
sessile spikelet is male or barren and awnless. Worldwide: 3 species in tropical America and Africa. Malawi: 1 taxon. |
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