Tropical Panicgrass

Annual, delicate. Culms geniculately ascending, rooting from lower nodes, 10–80 cm tall, branched, nodes puberulous. Leaves cauline; leaf sheaths striate, pilose or hispid; leaf blades lanceolate, membranous, 3–8 × 0.5–2 cm, pilose, base asymmetrically cordate or narrowed, apex acuminate; ligule ca. 0.2 mm, a ciliolate membrane. Panicle ovate or oblong in outline, 4–20 cm, much branched; branches fine and bearing the spikelets on long pedicels. Spikelets asymmetrically ovate, 1–1.5 mm, pubescent; lower glume ovate, 1/2 length of spikelet, 1–3-veined, separated by an internode; upper glume as long as spikelet, 3–5-veined; lower lemma similar to upper glume, palea 1/2 as long as lemma; upper floret as long as spikelet, thinly coriaceous, glabrous, white, granulose. Fl. and fr. Sep–Dec. 2n = 18.

Roadsides, waste places. Guangdong, Hainan [tropical America; introduced in tropical Africa and Asia].