Description: Annuals or perennials.
Leaves with blade rolled in bud.
Inflorescence a spike-like panicle.
Spikelets oblong to ovate-oblong, elliptic or lanceolate, laterally compressed or subterete, ± turgid, falling entire when mature from short, filiform pedicels. Florets 2, lower male or sterile, upper bisexual. Glumes unequal; lower shorter, soft or rigid with hyaline margins or tip, nerves prominent, sometimes reduced to a small scale; upper curved and inflated at base. Lower lemma narrower than upper glume, palea narrow, hyaline, finely keeled, shorter than lemma, sometimes much reduced or rudimentary. Upper lemma oblong, white, glossy, margins involute; palea subequal to lemma, 2-nerved. Lodicules 2, small, broad-cuneate. Stamens
Distribution and occurrence: World: c. 30 species, mostly tropical regions. Australia: 2 species (native), Qld, N.S.W., N.T., W.A.
Text by S. W. L. Jacobs & T. A. James
Taxon concept:
| One species in NSW: Sacciolepis indica |
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