Slender, often trailing, annuals or perennials. Leaf laminae broad (in ours) slightly cordate and semi-amplexicaul at base. Racemes arranged in subdigitate groups; rhachis internodes and pedicels delicate, filiform. Sessile spikelet laterally flattened; silvery-white appressed hairs present at the base; callus short, truncate; lower glume rounded on back with or without 2 lateral keels; lower floret reduced to a hyaline lemma; upper floret fertile; fertile (upper) lemma 2-fid almost to the base, with a glabrous awn arising from low down on the back of the lemma. Pedicellate spikelet either 0 or much reduced. Worldwide: c. 10 species in the Old World tropics, mainly India. Malawi: 2 taxa. |
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