Fimbristylis littoralis var. littoralis Steud.

Glabrous annual or perennial. Stems erect, densely tufted, compressed acutely 4-5-angular, smooth, 10-60(-90) cm by 1-2 mm, the base clothed with laterally compressed, sharply keeled, acuminate or shortly laminate, up to 15 cm long sheaths. Leaves distichous, from much shorter than to about as long as the stems, strongly laterally flattened, equitant, striate, without prominent midnerve, slightly scabrid on the thin margins, gradually acuminate, grooved on the inner margin (see Note 1), 1½-2½ mm wide; ligule absent. Inflorescence compound or decompound, loose, diffuse, with many to numerous spikelets, up to 10 cm long. Involucral bracts 2-4, much shorter than the inflorescence, erect, ½-3 cm. Primary rays several, scabrid, up to 7 cm. Spikelets solitary, globose or ellipsoid, terete, very obtuse, densely many-flowered, ferrugineous or rufous, 2-5 by 1½-2mm; rachilla wingless. Glumes spiral, membranous, ovate, obtuse, muticous, scarcely keeled, 3-nerved in the centre, frequently with a brown streak on both sides, narrowly hyaline-margined, c. 1½ by 1 mm. Stamens 1-2; anthers oblong-linear, ½-3/5 mm. Style triquetrous, slightly thickened at the base, glabrous, 1 mm; stigmas 3, about as long as the style. Nut trigonous, obovoid, subsessile, umbonulate, verruculose, minutely trans-versely lineolate by the transversely oblong-linear epidermal cells, whitish or stramineous, 3/5 by ⅓ mm.

In open, very wet places; a characteristic weed of the wet rice-fields, 0-1000 m.

Uses. The plants are readily eaten by cattle, but the food value is indifferent.