Description: Slender, wiry perennials.
Inflorescence a narrow panicle or racemose.
Spikelets laterally compressed, solitary, 3-flowered, the 2 lower florets ± similar, sterile and reduced to empty lemmas, the uppermost floret bisexual, shorter than the empty florets. Rachilla disarticulating above the persistent glumes, the 3 florets falling as a unit. Glumes much smaller than the spikelet, nerveless or 1-nerved. Stamens usually 4 or 2, rarely 3 or 6. Styles free, the stigmas plumose.
Distribution and occurrence: World: c. 10 species, Australia, New Zealand, Pacific islands. Australia: 2 species (native), all States except N.T.
Text by S. W. L. Jacobs & S. M. Hastings
Taxon concept:
| One species in NSW: Microlaena stipoides |
|
