Abildgaardia eragrostis Nees & Meyen in Wight, Contr. Bot. India, 95. 1834.

Perennials. Rhizomes short. Culms tufted, 20-50 cm tall, with fewer radical leaves at base. Leaf sheath leathery, apex obliquely split, mouth margins membranous and pale brown; leaf blade slightly falcate, 10-20 cm × 1-2.5 mm, glabrous, apex acute and apiculate. Involucral bracts 2-4, nearly leaflike, 3-15 mm, apically attenuate; bractlets pale brown, 2-3 mm. Inflorescence a compound anthela; rays 2 to many. Spikelets solitary, oblong, oblong-ovoid, or ovoid, 6-10 × 2-3 mm, many flowered, with basal 1 or 2 glumes empty. Fertile glumes yellowish brown, broadly ovate to subtriangular, 2.5-3.5 mm, shiny, 1-veined forming an abaxial keel, apex mucronate. Stamens 3. Ovary white, cylindric, striate; style brown, 3-sided, basally inflated; stigmas 3. Nutlet white or slightly brownish, broadly obovoid, 0.7-0.8 mm, 3-sided, verruculose. Fl. and fr. Jun-Sep.

Grasslands; near sea level to 1100 m. Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan, Jiangxi, Nansha Qundao, Taiwan [India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam; Australia].