Cynosurus indicus Linnaeus, Sp. Pl. 1: 72. 1753.

Annual. Culms tufted, erect or geniculate at base, 10–90 cm tall. Leaf sheaths glabrous or tuberculate-pilose; leaf blades flat or folded, 10–15 × 0.3–0.5 cm, glabrous or adaxial surface tuberculate-pilose; ligule ca. 1 mm, membranous, at most sparsely ciliolate. Inflorescence digitate, racemes (1–)2–7, linear, ascending, 3–10 × 0.3–0.5 cm, one raceme often set below the rest. Spikelets elliptic, 4–7 mm, florets 3–9; glumes lanceolate, scabrid along keel; lower glume 1-veined, 1.5–2 mm; upper glume with small additional veins in the thickened keel, 2–3 mm; lemmas ovate, 2–4 mm, keel with small additional veins, acute; palea keels winged. Grain blackish, oblong or ovate, obliquely striate with fine close lines running vertically between the striae. Fl. and fr. Jun–Oct. 2n = 18.

This pantropical, annual weed is a forage grass and is used for Chinese medicine.

Disturbed places, roadsides. Anhui, Beijing, Fujian, Guangdong, Guizhou, Hainan, Heilongjiang, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangxi, Shaanxi, Shandong, Shanghai, Sichuan, Taiwan, Tianjin, Xizang, Yunnan, Zhejiang [tropics and subtropics].