Annuals or short-lived perennials; rootbase unthickened, hairy; cataphylls glabrous. Culms erect or decumbent or prostrate, (3–) 10–45 cm high, filiform. Leaves: sheath much wider than blade at orifice; ligule 0.2–0.6 mm long; blade to 1.5 mm wide when flattened, filiform. Panicles contracted, often dense, 3–12 cm long, 2–7 cm wide. Spikelets pedicellate, 8–45 mm long, 0.4–0.7 mm wide, terete, often curved or flexuose; rachilla straight to weakly flexuose, persistent or finally deciduous; florets 12–73, closely overlapping. Glumes ±equal, ovate, 0.7–1.4 mm long. Lemma oblong or elliptic, 1.5–2 mm long, often with 2 obtuse lobes, membranous, with 3 ribbed nerves, smooth. Palea persistent or falling after lemma; body spathulate or oblanceolate with entire apex; flaps extremely narrow. Anthers 0.2–0.4 mm long. Grain dorsally flattened, 0.4–1.2 mm long, 0.2–0.3 mm thick, reddish brown.
Recorded from plains, stony tablelands, brackish lakesand saline flats, river frontages, claypans, roadsides and in streamlines;often in run-on areas; in sands, loams and clay soils.
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