Home
Fertile lemmas slightly shorter than the spikelet, cymbiform, semi-elliptic-oblong in lateral view, coriaceous; flanks finely tesselate, shortly but stiffly hispid or very rarely glabrous; keel and margins stiffly ciliate, lateral apical protrusions almost always distinct; awn (1)2-7·5 cm. long, very slender, flexuous, scaberulous, pale yellow.
Panicle 15-35 x 3-17 cm., narrowly to broadly elliptic or sometimes fan-shaped in outline, loose, erect, or drooping to some extent; rhachis obtusely angular, glabrous, smooth or inconspicuously scaberulous; branches spreading or ascending, solitary or sometimes adnate, angular, scabrous; pedicels 2-5 mm. long.
Leaf-laminae 15-45 x 0·5-2·5 cm., linear to very narrowly elliptic, acuminate, usually broadest around the middle, pale-green or rarely glaucous, rather flaccid, expanded or folded around the midrib, usually asperulous on both surfaces; midrib distinct beneath, some nerves finer than others.
Annual hydrophyte 600-1200 mm high; culms spongy. Leaf blade to 300 x 10 mm, auricles short; ligule 3-10 mm long, truncate, splits when dry. Spikelet 5-6 mm long, transversely attached to pedicel; lemma awn 10-70 mm long, scabrid; anther 1.3-1.5 mm long; stigma black.
Spikelets (5)5·5-6·25 + (2)2·25-2·8 mm. (the length usually 2·5 times the width), deciduous, transversely attached to the pedicel or nearly so, asymmetrically elliptic-oblong or broadly oblong in lateral view, greyish-green or glaucous.
Leaf-sheaths scarious, often spongy and aerenchymatous, distinctly striate, rather loose and often slipping off the culm, rounded or somewhat keeled in the upper part, auricled at the mouth, smooth, glabrous.
Palea slightly shorter than the lemma and much narrower but of the same consistency and indument, apex acute or tapering into a short acute point.
Culms 50-120(-150) cm. tall, 3-5-noded, erect or geniculately ascending, branched, terete, striate, smooth, glabrous.
Sterile lemmas about equal in shape and size, 1-1·5 mm. long, lanceolate to lanceolate-deltate, acuminate, glabrous.
Ligule 3-10 mm. long, rounded, truncate or somewhat acute, sometimes lacerate, glabrous.
A grass. It grows in water. The stems are 60-90 cm high and stout. They are spongy.
Caryopsis 4-4·75 x 1·5-1·75 mm., oblong, glabrous, light brown.
Glumes reduced to a membranous whitish narrow rim.
Anthers oblong, pale-violet.
A caespitose perennial.
Culms thick, spongy
Stigmas blackish.
