Loosely tufted rhizomatous perennial up to 250 cm high; basal sheaths glabrous or pubescent, rarely bulbously swollen; nodes usually glabrous; leaves linear. Inflorescence of 2–18 digitate or subdigitate racemes (axis up to 6 cm long); racemes 5–25 cm long, slender, stiff, the spikelets in pairs on a triquetrous winged rhachis. Spikelets lanceolate, (1.7–)2.5–3(–3.5) mm long; lower glume distinct, ovate or triangular, 0.2–0.5 mm long; upper glume 1/3–2/3 the length of the spikelet, 3-nerved, ciliate on the margins; lower lemma 7-nerved (the nerves evenly spaced or with the central interspaces up to 1/2 the width of the spikelet), pubescent to glabrescent with shortly ciliate margins, ± scabrid on the nerves and often pectinate with stiff spreading or appressed yellowish or brown glassy bristles; fruit ellipsoid, grey to greyish or pallid brown.
Range
S3 tropical and South Africa, introduced elsewhere in the tropics as a fodder grass.
