Description :

• Annual, decumbent; culms trailing
• Leaf blade lanceolate, soft and thin, acute, pseudopetiolate, sometimes cross-veined; ligule a thin, unfringed or fringed membrane
• Inflorescence of 2-6 racemes, scattered on slender central axis, rachis narrow; spikelets paired or appearing solitary because one of the pair often very reduced, pedicelled
• Spikelet laterally compressed, often gaping, ovoid, falling with glumes; glumes ± equal, dissimilar, herbaceous; lower glume three-quarters as long as spikelet, 3-nerved, glabrous, awnless; upper glume gibbous, as long as spikelet, 7-nerved, convex on keel, with longitudinal, translucent spots between nerves, few to many rigid hooks develop from spots (after fertilisation)
• Florets 2; lower floret male or sterile, lemma oblong-lanceolate, chartaceous, with membranous margins, glabrous, awnless; palea convolute, chartaceous; upper floret bisexual, lemma laterally compressed, similar to, to firmer in texture than glumes, chartaceous, ovate-lanceolate to oblong, entire, subacute, faintly 3-5-nerved, awnless; palea similar to lemma in texture, faintly 2-nerved, acute
• Lodicules 2, cuneate, fleshy
• Stamens 3
• Ovary glabrous; styles free, plumose
• Caryopsis obliquely ellipsoid, flattened on ventral side
• x = 9 (polyploidy)

Nomenclature:

• Pseudechinolaena Stapf
  • Stapf: 494 (1919)
  • Chippindall: 364 (1955)
  • Clayton & Renvoize: 545 (1982)
  • Clayton & Renvoize: 270 (1986)
  • Clayton: 3 (1989)~(Page number suspect - No access to the publication)
  • Gibbs Russell et al.: 277 (1990)
  • Watson & Dallwitz: 781 (1994)

Distribution & Notes:

• Global : Species 6, 5 in Madagascar, 1 pantropical
• Southern Africa : Species 1: Pseudechinolaena polystachya (Kunth) Stapf, Northern Province and KwaZulu-Natal to Eastern Cape