Annuals; culm erect or decumbent, 20-50 cm tall, node brownish black. Blade 8-20 cm long; sheath glabrous; ligule membranaceous, truncate, ca. 1 mm long, fringed with hairs. Panicle open, 5-15 cm long, terminal and aixllary. Spikelets glabrous, acute, ca. 2.5 mm long; lower glume obtuse, 3-veined, 1/ 3 or less length of spikelet; upper glume and lower lemma equal, strongly 9-11-veined; lower palea membranaceous, nearly as long as spikelet; upper lemma smooth, shiny, browm at maturity, coriaceous.

HSINCHU: Hsinpu, Suzuki 5574. MAIOLI: Tapu, Hsu 602. TAICHUNG: Hsinchung, Hsu 712. NANTOU: Chuangliao, Mori 8052.

Eastern Africa, India, Sri Lanka, Malesia and China. Taiwan, common in sugar-cane plantations, tea plantations and forest edges.