Stoloniferous perennial; culms up to 1 m long or more, postrate and rooting at the nodes below. Leaf-blades flat, 2-15 cm long, 2-5 mm wide. Racemes 2-8 cm long; internodes obliquely articulated. Sessile spikelet narrowly elliptic-oblong with a triangular callus; lower glume 3-4 mm long, obtuse to obscurely bidentate; upper glume acute, as long as the lower.

Fl. & Fr. Per.: July-September.

Type Locality: Indies.

Distribution: Pakistan (Sind, Punjab, N.W.F.P. & Kashmir); Iraq and Afghanistan through India to China, Taiwan, Indo-China and Thailand.

Hemarthria altissima (Poir.) Stapf & Hubbard in Kew Bull. 1934: 109. 1934, is a species closely related to Hemarthria compressa which is centred upon Africa and the Mediterranean; it also occurs in America and there are a few isolated records from Burma, Thailand and Borneo. It is a rather more robust plant than Hemarthria compressa with the lower glume of the sessile spikelet 4-6 mm long. The callus is triangular and thus the species overlap to some extent, sometimes being difficult to separate with certainty. So far the identity of Pakistani material has not been open to question, but ,Hemarthria altissima may be expected to occur in Pakistan and should be looked for.