Stereochlaena Hack.

Annuals or perennials. Leaf-blades linear with cartilaginous margins; ligule short, membranous. Inflorescence composed of digitate racemes; rhachis triquetrous, narrowly winged, bearing paired spikelets. Spikelets narrowly lanceolate to oblong-elliptic; lower glume a tiny truncate scale or suppressed; upper glume very short to almost as long as the spikelet and sometimes awned; lower floret barren, represented by a membranous lemma as long as the spikelet, scabrid on the back and terminating in a straight awn; upper lemma chartaceous, acute to acuminate, its flat thin margins enfolding and concealing the palea. Caryopsis narrowly ellipsoid, dorsally flattened.