Annuals or perennials. Infl
composed of solitary racemes embraced by sheathing
spatheoles, these single or in little bunches on flexuous
peduncles and aggregated in a leafy false panicle; raceme
comprising 2 homogamous pairs forming a sort of involucre and 1-4
sessile spikelets with their pedicellate attendants; internodes linear. Sessile spikelets terete; callus obtuse to pungent; lower glume coriaceous; lower floret reduced to a
hyaline lemma; upper floret passing directly into an awn or hyaline and awnless. Pedicellate spikelets male or barren,
awnless. Worldwide: 18 species in the Old World tropics Zambia: 1 taxon. |