Annuals, decumbent to geniculately ascending, bisexual. Leaves: sheath loose and inflated, abruptly contracted at apex; ligule a fringe of hairs; blade disarticulating from the sheath, rolled in bud. Inflorescences falsely paniculate, consisting of axillary fascicles which occur in simple form with the lower leaves but proliferate towards the culm tips, spatheate, with spikelets not secundly arranged; spikelet-bearing axes subtended by the inflated sheath of a single spatheate leaf, clavate, 3–10 mm long, reduced to a terminal pedicellate spikelet, often with 1 or 2 lateral spikelets, falling entire. Spikelets somewhat laterally compressed, with 3–7 bisexual florets, falling entire with the axis; rachilla prolonged with incomplete florets. Callus absent. Glumes 2, unequal, shorter than the spikelet, awnless, carinate; lower glume nerveless or 1-nerved; upper glume 3-nerved. Lemmas aristulate, carinate, 3-nerved, glabrous or with short erect hairs. Grain: surface sculptured; hilum short; pericarp free.
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