Annuals or perennials. Rhachis internodes and pedicels linear.
Inflorescence consisting of paired racemes subtended by spatheoles and crowded in a false panicle. Each raceme borne on a stalk (raceme-base); the raceme-bases filiform, unequal. Lower raceme with a single pair of olive-green homogamous spikelets at the base.
Sessile spikelet: callus applied obliquely to the apex of the internode with its tip free; lower glume rounded on the back, becoming dark brown; upper glume usually awned; lower floret reduced to a hyaline lemma; upper lemma 2-lobed, bearing an awn with a hirsute column. Pedicellate spikelet male or barren, narrowly lanceolate, olive-green tinged with brown; callus well-developed. Worldwide: 6 species in tropical Africa with one also in Brazil Botswana: 1 taxon. |
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