Slender annual or short-lived perennial plants (3–) 13.5–45.5 cm high. Culms branched, fastigiate, scabrous to sparsely hispid with tubercle-based hairs; nodes (2–) 4–6, pilose or glabrous. Leaves hispid and tuberculate; sheaths more than half as long as culm internodes; blade to 10 cm long, setaceous, hispid or scabrous-papillose on upper surface. Panicles open, 2.5–5 cm long, 0.5–0.8 cm wide. Glumes 4.8–8.3 mm long, muticous, 11–13-nerved, hispid between nerves with tubercle-based hairs or tubercles, rarely smooth and glabrous. Florets exceeding glumes by 0.3–2 (–3) mm; lemma and palea appressed or divergent. Callus entirely bearded. Lemma (5.8–) 6.8–7.3 (–9) mm long, acuminate, muticous or with cusp to 0.6 mm long, membranous or becoming cartilaginous, 5–7-nerved (nerves obscure towards base), without grooves, hirsute near base, glabrous and smooth or densely scaberulous above, long-ciliate on margins almost to apex, sometimes pubescent on inside near apex. Palea as long as lemma or slightly shorter, notched or shortly bifid, hirsute between keels in a median series or sometimes glabrous, sparsely ciliate on margins of flaps at least in lower part. Caryopsis 3.8–4.8 (–5.8) mm long.
Occurs in deep sands and loams on plains and coastal dunes, skeletal andshallow often gravelly or stony soils in association with granite, sandstoneplateaux, quartzite hills and lateritic rises, and seasonally wet usually sandysites such as in and near streams, depressions and swamps which may be saline.
Home