Annual or short-lived perennial; stems up to 40(-60) cm high; leaves flat, 2–5 mm wide. Panicle 2–6(–8) cm long; involucre elongate, 6–16 mm long; inner bristles much exceeding the spikelets, one of them longer and stouter than the rest, flattened at the base, connate for 1–2.5 mm above the rim of the basal disc to form a cup, almost glabrous to sparsely ciliate below, filiform above, flexuous, antrorsely scaberulous; outer bristles filiform. Spikelets 1–3 per burr, 3–5 mm long.
Range
N1–3 East and North-east tropical Africa eastwards to India, introduced in Australia.
