Description: Perennials with long, geniculate, scrambling culms or a decumbent, freely rooting base.
Leaves with ligule very short, membranous.
Inflorescence paniculate, of racemes or fascicles ± regularly distant or occasionally approximate; branches and pedicels filiform.
Spikelets ± glabrous, strongly dorsally compressed, falling entire. Florets 2, the lower reduced to the lemma, the upper bisexual. Glumes similar in shape, texture, and often in size, much shorter than the spikelet. Lemmas equal or subequal; lower lemma ± equalling the spikelet in shape and size, slightly depressed on the back. Upper lemma ± leathery, mucronulate, commonly flat towards the tip; margins narrowly hyaline, ± ciliolate upwards, embracing the palea; palea equalling the lemma and of similar texture.
Distribution and occurrence: World: c. 6 species, Old World tropical regions. Australia: 2 species (native), Qld, N.S.W.
Text by S. W. L. Jacobs & C. A. Wall
Taxon concept:
| One species in NSW: Ottochloa gracillima |
|
