Perennial (always ?), glabrous. Stems densely tufted, finally forming large clumps some dm in diam., erect or finally prostrate, setaceous, striate-sulcate, smooth, greyish green, (5-)10-30 cm by ¼-½ mm. Leaves all reduced to membranous, obliquely truncate, ferrugineous sheaths not disinte-grating into reticulate fibres, or 1-2 with a short filiform blade sometimes up to 6 cm long; ligule absent. Inflorescence consisting of a single terminal spikelet. Spikelet erect, oblanceolate or narrowly oblong, terete, acute, 4-9-flowered, 3-6 by 1-1½ mm; rachilla winged. Glumes spiral, cartilagi-nous, erect, lanceolate, acute, muticous, scarcely keeled, pale, 2½-3 by c. 1½ mm; keel green, indistinctly 3-5(-7)-nerved, sides nerveless; lower (1-)2 empty glumes larger, almost as long as the spikelet, several-nerved, 3-4 by 1¾ mm. Stamens 1-2(-3); anthers linear, 1¼-2 mm long. Style triquetrous, slightly thickened at the base, sparsely and minutely ciliolate, 1½-2¼ mm; stigmas 3, or in some flowers 2, much shorter than the style. Nut obtusely trigonous with convex faces, usually dorsiventrally compressed, sometimes biconvex (in the digynous flowers), obovoid, shortly stipitate, not or hardly umbonulate, whitish verruculose, stramineous to brown, ¾-9/10 by ½-3/5 mm; epidermal cells irreg-ular, isodiametric or elliptic.
More
Perennials. Rhizomes hardly developed. Culms densely tufted, 5-18 cm tall, slender, short, flatly cylindric, smooth, glabrous, with few leaf sheaths at base. Leaves bladeless; sheath brown, cylindric, apically attenuate, margin membranous, mouth obliquely truncate. Involucral bracts absent. Inflorescences reduced to a single terminal spikelet, narrowly oblong to clavate-oblong, 3.5-4.5 × 1-1.5 mm, few flowered, with basalmost glume empty. Glumes pale with rust-colored short lines, oblong to oblong-ovate, 3-3.2 mm, 7-9-veined, midvein abaxially green, apex obtuse and not mucronate. Stamens 3; anthers linear. Style long and compressed, sparsely ciliate, basally slightly broader; stigmas 3, with sparse papillae. Nutlet white, obovoid, ca. 0.8 mm, nearly 3-sided, with sparse verruculose and subhexagonal reticulation. Fl. and fr. Aug-Sep.
Wet grasslands, savannahs, forest floors and swamp margins. Sunny or shaded, damp, sandy or clayey sites, on swamps edges, and in rice fields, at elevations up to 800 metres.
More
In damp sandy and clayish localities both shaded and sunny, swamp margins, savannahs, often completely covering jungle-paths, at low altitudes, up to 800 m.
Home
