Thysanolaena Nees in Edinb. New Phil. J. 18:180. 1835. Hook.f., Fl. Brit. Ind. 7:61 .1896; Sultan & Stewart, Grasses W. Pak. 2:371.1959; Bor, Grasses Burma Ceyl. Ind. Pak. 650.1960.
Perennial shrubs with reed-like culms. Leaf-blades very broad, firm and long; ligule cartilaginous, very short. Inflorescence a large open panicle. Spikelets all alike, 2-rarely 3-flowered with the lower floret barren and reduced to the lemma and the upper bisexual; rhachilla tough, tardily disarticulating above the glumes and between the florets, produced beyond the upper floret and sometimes bearing a third, male or rudimentary floret; pedicel fragile, breaking and allowing the spikelet to fall; glumes about half as long as the lemmas, usually obtuse, nerveless or obscurely 1-nerved, hyaline; lower lemma as long as the spikelet, thinly membranous, acuminate, 1-3-nerved; palea absent; upper lemma ovate, acute or mucronate, becoming slightly indurated, 3-nerved, ciliate on the margins with long straight hairs; palea short, truncate.
A monotypic genus in Southeast Asia.
