Pseudechinolaena

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).