G.635. Rottboellia L.f.

Annuals. Inflorescence a single raceme, either terminal or aggregated into a spatheate false panicle. Racemes fragile, cylindric or slightly flattened; internodes clavate with sunken spikelets, wholly or partly fused to the adjacent pedicel. Sessile spikelet: callus truncate; lower glume broadly convex on the back, smooth; lower floret male with hyaline lemma and palea; upper lemma entire and awnless. Pedicellate spikelet present, a little smaller than the sessile; pedicel oblong, flattened, scarcely distinguishable from the internode.

Derivation of name: for Christen Friis Rottbøll (1727-1797), Danish physician, botanist and pupil of Linnaeus.

Worldwide: 4 species in the Old World tropics,

Malawi: 1 taxon.