Fimbristylis littoralis Gaudich.

Annuals or short-lived perennials. Rhizomes absent. Culms tufted, (1.5-)10-60 cm tall, flatly 4-angled, striate, bearing 1-3 bladeless sheaths at base. Basal leaf sheaths (1.5-)3.5-9 cm, sometimes setaceous, compressed bilaterally, attenuate apically, mouth obliquely split. Leaves shorter to longer than culm; sheath bilaterally compressed, abaxially with a membranous and rust-colored margin, adaxially keeled, mouth obliquely split; ligule absent; leaf blade ensiform, (1-)1.5-2 mm wide, bilaterally compressed, margin sparsely and finely serrulate, apically attenuate into a setaceous tip. Involucral bracts 2-4, setaceous, base dilated, margin rust-colored and membranous. Inflorescence a compound, decompound, or rarely simple anthela, subdense, with many spikelets; rays 3-6, 0.8-5 cm, slender, scabrid. Spikelets solitary, globose to subglobose, 1.5-5 × 1.5-3 mm, apex rounded. Glumes chestnut-brown or dark brown, ovate, 1-1.3 or 3.5-6 mm, membranous, 3-veined forming an abaxial keel, midvein green, lateral veins brown, apex obtuse. Stamens 2; anthers oblong, ca. 0.7 mm, ca. 1/2 as long as filaments, apex obtuse. Style 3-sided, not ciliate, basally slightly inflated; stigmas 3, ca. 1/2 as long as style. Nutlet straw-yellow, obovoid to broadly obovoid, ca. 1 mm, obtusely 3-sided, verruculose with transversely oblong reticulation. Fl. and fr. May-Oct.

In marshy grassland, rice-fields, edge of dams, etc.