Cynosurus coracanus Linnaeus, Syst. Nat., ed. 10, 2: 875. 1759 ["coracan"].

Annual. Culms tufted, robust, erect or ascending, usually branched, 50–120 cm tall. Leaf sheaths glabrous; leaf blades flat, 30–60 × 0.6–1.2 cm, pilose or glabrous; ligule 1–2 mm. Inflorescence subdigitate, racemes 5–20, stout, often incurved at maturity, 5–10 × 0.8–1.5 cm, hairy at base. Spikelets very closely imbricate, ovate, 5–9 mm, florets 6–9, not disarticulating at maturity; glumes lanceolate-oblong, scabrid along the winged keel; lower glume 3-veined, 1.5–3 mm; upper glume with additional veins in keel, 1.8–5 mm; lemmas triangular-ovate, 2.2–4.7 mm, keel 3-veined, scabrid and narrowly winged, subacute; palea narrowly ovate, keels scabrid, winged. Grain yellowish brown, globose, finely striate-punctate. Fl. and fr. May–Sep. 2n = 36.

This species is used for cereal, forage, papermaking, and soil-retention.

Cultivated cereal crop. Anhui, Fujian, Guangdong, Guizhou, Hainan, Henan, Hubei, Jiangxi, Ningxia, Shandong, Sichuan, Taiwan, Yunnan, Zhejiang [widely cultivated in tropical and subtropical regions of the Old World].