Annuals or perennials; culms erect or ascending, tufted. Leaf blade ovate-oblong or linear, glabrous
or with tubercle-based hairs; ligule membranaceous, ciliate. Inflorescence composed of racemes, all
digitately arranged; racemes secund, sometimes slightly branched. Spkelets falling as a whole, pedicelate,
on one side of rachis, sometimes solitary, mostly in pairs, rarely more together, dorsally compressed,
ovate-oblong, 2-flowered; glumes herbaceous; lower glume shorter than spikelet, acute, 3-
veined; upper glume as long as spikelet, ovate, margins long-ciliate, 5-veined; lower lemma herbaceous,
5-veined; lower palea shorter, deeply 2-fid, broadly inflexed at base, adnate to base of upper lemma, 1-
veined; upper lemma chartaceous, glabrous with broadly inflexed, hyaline margins, short-awned, 5-
veined; upper palea chartaceous, entire, margins broadly inflexed at base, 2-veined, almost completely
embraced by upper lemma; lodicules 2; stamens 3; styles 2, distant, stigmas exserted laterally. Caryopsis
ellipsoid, plan-convex, hilum punctiform, basal.
Five species, distributed in tropical regions of Africa and Asia. One species in Taiwan.
Five species, distributed in tropical regions of Africa and Asia. One species in Taiwan.
