| Description : |
Perennial; culms 23–56 cm. high, invested at the base with the fibrous remains of old leaf-sheaths. Leaf-blades filiform, convolute, 4–16 cm. long, 0.6–2.1 mm. wide (when flattened), pilose on the upper surface and margins, glabrous beneath; ligule 0.4–0.6 mm. long. Inflorescence 8–22 cm. long, the spikelets overlapping by half their length or more, olive-grey. Spikelets 9–50-flowered, elliptic to linear-oblong and slightly sinuous, 6–20 mm. long, varying greatly in size even within the same spike, the rhachilla fracturing at maturity towards the base, sometimes also a few lemmas falling, the persistent paleas remaining on the rhachilla; lower glume lanceolate to narrowly ovate, with a thickened scabrid keel, 1.7–6 mm. long, subacute to acuminate; upper glume oblong to narrowly ovate, rounded, 1.8–4 mm. long, subacute; lemmas ovate, 1.9–2.6 mm. long, acute; palea broadly winged on the keels, ciliolate along the wing margins. Caryopsis 0.5–0.6 mm. long, broadly ovate in outline, obtusely trigonous in cross section. Fig. 67, p. 245. |